We still have our ships
by jusblekyuri
Summary: It was a light at the end of the tunnel. Japan had developed something that could finally push back even the hated Abyssals, but Japan refused to deal with the Russian and Chinese navies. That didn't stop either of them.
1. Chapter 1: Historic Moments

It was a light at the end of the tunnel. Japan had developed something that could finally push back even the hated Abyssals, but Japan refused to deal with the Russian and Chinese navies.

That didn't stop either of them.

 **Disclaimer:** The Kantai Collection franchise is owned by Kadokawa Games and by DMM. com

Chapter One: Historic Moments

 _Lin Jingfei awoke from a fitful dream._

 _She fumbled around for her medicines before finally slapping down on bottle of pills._

 _She'd only just gotten to sleep as well. What a shame._

 _The treatment methods that the navy were now handing out to its PTSD-ridden sailors weren't nice. The pills that she was taking would make her more prone to those ugly reactionary sensations. Those feelings that normally would be hard to be susceptible to, unless you were in serious shit. It would make her more prone to irrationality, hate, fury and frustration._

 _It was like the modern-day rum. Meant to keep the military in a constant state of intoxication of some description all the damn time. And it was guaranteed get recruits and veterans alike back into the fight, no matter how traumatised and damaged they were. Or would be._

 _At least it could be another option to juicing yourself up on that slew of various substance addictions._

 _Taking these drugs now, Jingfei could feel the ever-present guilt of surviving being overridden by her instincts to harm something._

 _Good. That was very good._

 _She put on her duty uniform and checked that she looked presentable._

 _Jingfei then reported to the bridge._

 _…_

 _"Jingfei, you're shift is not on until the sun goes down."_

 _Jingfei always had trouble sleeping on hot nights. Yet she could sleep perfectly fine on the following hot days. It shouldn't have mattered in the temperature-controlled climes of their destroyer anyway. But it did._

 _The captain looked askance at the sleepy-eyed but reasonably well-dressed woman._

 _"I'll give you points for enthusiasm, but you'll hear this again from me - and for the rest of this trip probably (grumble) – that you're of no use to anyone without your health."_

 _The Lieutenant would have almost been able to keep up the professional appearance. If she hadn't looked like an officer candidate who went without slept for exam week, she might have been able to pull it off._

 _"I don't feel tired," she said primly._

 _"We both know that's not true."_

 _Pairs of dark eyes stared down each other._

 _"Just find something for me to do," she eventually said, "Anything will do."_

 _"I won't let the chance that a needless mistake be made because one of my subordinates were not at their best."_

 _"Please," she growled out._

 _"Just go get some shuteye. That's an order."_

 _…_

 _"Fuck," she put her fist through the mirror._

 _Being on a destroyer, living conditions were better for the crew than, let's say, a patrol boat._

 _The officer quarters were as modern as the ship they were attached to. Destroyers were cutting-edge modern ships after all. And it didn't hurt that the crew felt comfortable when they travelled large distances._

 _Of course these pleasant room renovations were lost to the bathroom mirror._

 _"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. That little tripe tells me not to help."._

 _Punch. Smash. Punch. Shatter._

 _"Just a little more time," muttered Lieutenant Commander Jingfei._

 _Those reassurances weren't for herself._

 _…_

 _The Type 052C destroyer, also known the Luyang II or Lanzhou class, was chasing down people smuggling operations in the Asian region. It and its frigate escorts, a mix of the newer Type 54's and numerous and reliable Type 53's, were running their engines for a leisurely 25 knots._

 _The ships they were running down like cavalry, were small and nimble pleasure yachts. However, ton-for-ton, the naval ships could more efficiently shift their vessels in pursuit of their prey._

 _Having almost passed by Taiwan, if the fleeing illegals and cargo were allowed to reach Philippine waters, they would have to call of the hunt. They would lose custody of these criminals. The coast guard probably had a better idea than the surface fleet how many times these runners had made these trips and bribed the authorities._

 _"This is the captain to all ships," the captain had consulted the positions of all the ships relative to each other, "proceed to herd and box the enemy in."_

 _Two of the frigates in front, half the escorts in total, drew parallel to the escapees. Jingfei knew there was a good chance with this enemy and situation, that they could get the criminals to surrender._

 _But the Philippines would raise hell if they drew much closer, so they had precious little room to manoeuve._

 _It seemed they had failed, because the frigates moved to overtake the yachts._

 _It was as the pursuit force drew around their prey, that their scanners pinged the arrival of Abyssals arriving from somewhere in the Pacific._

 _…_

 _Suddenly the people smugglers became very cooperative._

 _"Highest alert. Everyone is to get to their duty stations. Get the authorities to evacuate the area."_

 _"Sir," Jingfei's desired night shift had arrived after too damn long, "We can tell them to seek refuge in Hong Kong. Convince them it is further away from the enemy."_

 _Twenty-two Abyssal vessels. There were two fast battleships and eight cruisers._

 _Jingfei looked at the representations of both forces on the displays around her. As second-in-command, she had to notice what the CO didn't. She found herself snarling at the enemy._

 _"Let's clear out," said the captain, "the Abyssals are not after us."_

 _The Abyssals were not moving towards them. They seemed to be prioritising some helpless fishing trawlers._

 _"We should engage right now, sir," but Jingfei hated and knew they couldn't throw around that much weapons fire around Philippines-held waters. That would be a breach of international trust._

 _…_

 _The crew on the fishing trawlers couldn't believe their good fortune._

 _They had heard about how the Abyssals were balling around in the Pacific and being a serious problem. It was why convoys traversing the Pacific didn't do so unless in the watchful company of friendly battle groups._

 _They had heard about the Abyssals' arrival quite late, due to the lowly civilian radar they used. But there were friendly warships just there. They could handle this. Right?_

 _…_

 _The crews on the most powerful warships conceived and built by Chinese hands gracefully, majestically even, began their first move._

 _They punched into their navigation consoles a course approximately 180 degrees different to their current heading._

 _In the spirit of international cooperation, they ran the fuck away from the Abyssals along with the prey they had been hunting earlier._

 _…_

 _Following the crippling loss of support and resolve from being smacked around by the Abyssals for the last few months, the United States pushed for a huge offensive on the Abyssals. A showy and glorious international operation, with all their allies and guest nations invited, would legitimise the image of stability to the world._

 _Of course their political enemies weren't invited._

 _And that was how China completely missed out on the catastrophe that befell those participating nations._

 _…_

 _When the war had been declared, the arms races began._

 _A sneaky-beaky thermos flask full of mysterious green complex, a tiny toy-like floatplane, a serving of the best goddamn ice cream sundae as attested to by both weapons development and connoisseurs alike._

 _These were some of the prizes that China had to show from the espionage brawls that developed nations were now undertaking in what was unmistakeably the next world war._

 _No new technology stays that way for long. Especially if it is successful, others rush in the hope that they may borrow its success._

 _It would take many years before they were ready._

 _…_

 _"Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender._

 _Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender._

 _If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum._

 _And what then_ _—_ _when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be?_

 _He has told them that we're retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically._

 _He believes this because from our side he's heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he'd rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us._

 _You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery._

 _If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy?_

 _Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs?_

 _Should Christ have refused the cross?_

 _Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world'?_

 _The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honoured dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain._

 _Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all._

 _You and I… have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." and "There is a point beyond which they must not advance."_

 _Winston Churchill once said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits—not animals." And he said, "There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."_

 _You and I have a rendezvous with destiny._

 _We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."_

-Ronald Reagan-

...

Before witnessing history being made, a short video conference was in order.

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli, glanced at the conference room's clock as he sat at the head of a stupendously large horse-shoe shaped table. Usually meant to seat dozens of important officials and then some, the room was only booked for one man right now.

The panoramic screen that dominated the opposite end of the room switched from displaying the pre-loader to a friendly and familiar face.

"How are you Borya?"

Xian's Russian counterpart, Boris Corschkov acknowledged him with a grim nod.

"Considering what we are about to do, I reckon I could compare it to a Chinese adaption of a South Korean TV drama about Japanese history."

"A good adaption?" asked Xian.

"Seeing as we've effectively stolen... the naval personnel summoning ritual without the consent and more importantly advice and reassurances of the original developers is never comforting."

"Well it's really too late for that now."

"T-That is... true."

The two admirals were silent as they offered a quick prayer to the divine.

…

Xian spoke up again.

"Who are you summoning?"

The reply was immediate.

"The list of candidates that was compiled has put our most modern warships as the priority."

"That are dead," stated Xian.

"Reincarnations of naval personnel with the best specs will be the targets of our initial attempts."

"I'm sure you have plenty modern ships to reincarnate. Although maybe some will look askance to their recent deaths, especially if it was traumatic involving our current enemy."

"Well if their personalities don't match up with our agenda, we can always scrap them. And I've heard unwilling warships can refuse the summoning."

"Really? What happens to the resources?"

Boris paused.

"Unknown."

"Well," Xian said somewhat wearily, "if this succeeds, we may not have to suffer so many casualties. Not whole crews, not whole cities."

"Not whole crews? You consider them a cheaper... expenditure."

Xian reconsidered his wording.

"We send a warship out to battle. It is the most logistically complicated, expensive and maintenance heavy military hardware that we are sending into the fray. Precious and sometimes irreplaceable assets with crews, officers and the hopes of war effort riding with them, into contested waters where literally anything can happen. The enemy is simply too unpredictable."

"It just seemed... as if you were ready to hide behind them."

"So sensitive Borya! Running and fighting with these "naval personnel" will be take a lesser burden on our countries. Less resources, less lives. That's all I meant."

...

The two men were winding their meeting to a close.

"So the People's Liberation Army Navy also plans to resurrect Sovremenny Class destroyers?"

"Why not? They seem like ideal candidates to figure out the specifics of the summoning. Russia constructed and exported those destroyers. We'll have an opportunity to see how we can call to action resurrected ships that aren't native. Test their loyalties. Puzzle it out. Heck you could build one and we'll see if we can build their ship sister. And those destoyers are pretty formidable"

Boris was nodding as Xian spoke.

"I suppose we'll have to see. I don't know when I can call you again like this but I'll certainly tell you what happens."

"Sure thing"

...

Xian left the room. A call from his cell startled him. He laughed.

 _I'm so nervous._

He answered the call, his expression become more and more unsettled as he listened to the speaker on the end.

He hung up without replying when the speaker stopped. He bolted off.

"I swear I need a secretary to handle these things!" to no one in particular as he ran down the empty hallways.

 _Well it can't really be helped with all the shortages in manpower, but still. (grumble)_

...

Boris left his office after having that somewhat calming conversation.

Xian was an excitable man. A military man bored stiff with all the machinations of China's growing war machine and having to cope with political shenanigans that could grate on the steel nerves of even the staunchest combat veterans.

Xian deserved this posting. He would be remembered and respected regardless if the process succeeded or failed. It was a good opportunity.

"Oh yeah I was signed up to a black op that only the highest echelons were aware of," could do strange things to anyone's career.


	2. Chapter 2: More Shipwreck then Ship

Chapter Two: More Shipwreck then Ship

 _"In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins."_

-Ulysses Grant-

...

 _At their weakest moment, when it seemed that enemy had an impossible to dislodge presence in the skies and seas, the Kanmusu arrived._

 _It had taken the awe-inspiring failures and losses endured before the Japanese politicians started listening to the radical ideas of their scientists._

 _They had taken notes from the Abyssals. They shrunk down the hull and armaments of warships into a more compact size._

 _Obviously they needed someone who could actually lift and use this dense equipment._

 _They designed a ritual that could call back the ethereal spirits of downed warships. They tweaked the amount of supplies that would allow the spirits to take a corporeal form. They tried out what music should be played. What oaths should be invoked. Which people to handle the ceremony to resurrect them into human form._

 _Finally Japan managed to bring back the navy from their greatest time._

 _The people of the world, whose faith in humanity's survival had scraped the proverbial bottom, begged the Japanese for their technologies._

 _The Japanese leaders told their allies they couldn't let the technologies to fall into unscrupulous hands. But they could offer protection to the rest of the world if they paid exorbitant fees to fund their endeavours._

 _The Asian nations ran streams of convoys to the Japanese islands, paying a modern tithe for their help._

 _But it was the Germans and Italians that co-operated the most. They were even allowed to play host to a few of these Kanmusu, or ship girls. That was just how much they were sending to Japan._

 _And like that, the world reached an agreeable stalemate with their ferocious and relentless enemy._

 _But their enemy could learn as well._

…

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli skidded to a halt in front of the canteen.

He was not here for leisure, he was still very much on duty, but because the caller had specified this very noticeable spot for a quick rendezvous.

"Tell me what's happening right now!"

The question was directed to the head scientist of the "Naval Personnel Adjustment and Deployment Department". Even after a good little bit of espionage had taken the secrets to summoning the souls of ships, there was still a lot of research to be done and the information they had and would stand to gain needed to be organised and studied.

Although he had met the man on several occasions, due to them being in the same department and facilities, both had been too busy directing their own teams of people around. They didn't seem to know each other very well.

"The resources set aside for the summoning have disappeared!"

"What?!"

The details of the summoning ritual was still obscure to the Chinese and the Russians. They had had to do their best with the information they had "appropriated" and start summoning Naval Personnel right away.

So truck- and train-loads of resources -transporting that many resources by sea was just _asking_ the enemy to rip you a new one- had arrived haphazardly and as quickly as the schedule allowed.

When they were confident that there were enough resources to at least get half a dozen if not more Naval Personnel, the timetable had been set. Monks, a military band, and whoever was deemed critical had all been prepared for this.

And now a mishap! His superiors would not be happy. Especially as he had been tasked with summoning a sizeable flotilla. Those **resources** for so many ships, where could they have gone?

...

 _Please don't scrap me_

 _Those were the first words she thought as she was manoeuvred into port._

 _It had been a tiring journey. A stressful one. She was so scared that after all the trouble that she gave to her navy, that they might feel she wasn't worth it._

 _She had believed through various points of her journey that she would be_

 _scrapped. Maybe she should have been_

 _Because her navy, her navy she so troubled had fought tooth and nail with the other powerful and respectable navies of the world just to move her to port._

 _What was wrong with her?_

 _..._

Xian stormed into the "summoning room".

"What the hell were you bastards thinking?" He practically screamed into the face of the chastised port workers.

"W-W-w-w-we were told to wait for a little bit before moving these resources into those circles."

"Yeah but-"the second of the three workers had plucked up his courage from the first, "A little bit turned into a long time and we thought-"

"You thought fucking what!" Xian Chengli, rear Admiral of the reorganised North Home fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy and head of the program that would procure hope for the nation, had snapped, "You just couldn't wait a few more hours when we've been planning this for fucking buddha's gelatinous flying fuck knows how long!"

"-t-t-t-that if we moved them a little earlier, no h-h-harm done right?" the

worker stuttered, all previous thoroughly misplaced courage gone.

"OHOHO! You speak about harm? Where is it bastard?! Where did it all go then?!Where did all of those tons of ammo crates, bauxite and Confucius left tit knows we needed and scraped from around the country!?"

The workers looked at each other, confirming if they should continue, and perhaps hoping to garner courage from the presence of their comrades in peril.

Yeah the latter didn't happen.

"They just disappeared! And it just happened all at once when we had moved all of the boxes-"

...

 _The sheer amount of_ ** _resources_** _that had gone into her, her navy hadn't given up, the person who bought her, who had first suggested that his nation could_

 _adopt her languishing hull, hadn't given up._

 _But it hurt. To know what trouble she was causing. Her owner had to file for bankruptcy, her navy was slandered, the navy and owner willing to give her a new lease of life._

 _She was so grateful and this was how she had repaid them._

 _..._

"-then the pool in the centre of the room just hissed and disappeared!"

Now that Xian had railed and taken his anger out on these poor hapless workers, he had vented all his stress, nervousness and anger on these fools.

And now he was spent. All that was left now, now that he had made sure they would **never make the same mistake again.**

He turned and stormed from the room.

Outside he managed to finally calm down. Looking out on the water, so blue and sparkling, with the sun blazing with all of its glory and the warm air, he finally recollected his thoughts.

Okay it wasn't that much of a **nightmare**.

Okay, so one mistake had been made, but this was their **first** time. A mishap could have happened any time. It was just unfortunate that it had to be now. Well, a whole load of resources were **missing in action.**

But that was okay, there was probably some truckload of resources coming in soon anyway. He just wished he had a secretary **,** someone to supervise those truly incompetent.

 **...**

 _She watched as her journey turned into a_ ** _nightmare_** _for her adoptees. At many points of her journey she was afraid that they would give into their demands, their harsh demands to be abandoned, to be decommissioned, to be scrapped._

 _She had been caught in a force ten gale, had been forced adrift and the efforts and even the sacrifice of a sailor, of another nation had paid that ultimate price._

 _Other navies were angry, they said that she would disturb the tranquillity that had allowed them to prosper. She had to wait then, in the Suez canal, had sympathised and bemoaned it when her navy and owner were told quite simply that she was "dead" with no on-board power source. She wasn't allowed_

 _through. She- They would have to take the long way around._

 _Dead._

 _But they didn't give up._

 _And eventually she had made it._

 _And her new navy... and country had been grateful._

 _Grateful? But they were. They seemed to turn a tragedy into a miracle, they saw her burdensome journey as a triumph of their determination. Their boundless optimism. Their hope._

 _For the_ ** _first_** _time since the journey had hit its first snag, she was happy._

...

"Excuse me?"

Xian who had managed to collect himself from his- was this a breakdown?- breakdown. He turned to this new voice.

The woman the voiced belonged to seemed to be some office worker or government official. Maybe support staff?

"Do you need something? What can I do for you?"

"I do need something. Do you know where I can find the Admi-"

"Admiral Chengli! Rear Admiral Chengli!"

An officer, one Xian recognised. The officer had been crippled in her last mission and had served in auxiliary capacities since.

"Sir." She saluted with her prosthetic arm. "The carrier-"

...

 _That she would grow to become the pride of the navy! That they should have all rights given up on her, had done everything to save her, and now they seemed to celebrate as if she had carried a similar burden._

 _Her owner would spend many years paying off the debt accrued from the setbacks._

 _Her joy sullied by her owner's fate, she humbly accepted the task given to her._

 _To be China's first carrier._

...

"-Liaoning. I-It's gone."

"What? That ship had a whole battle group! That can't be true!"

"It is."

The two officers looked at her. Xian was still in denial. The support officer, Lin Jingfei, was crying.

 _..._

 _But her joy had been robbed. Shortly after being commissioned as the Liaoning, with a family of other ships all encouraging her, she had taken her flagship role and sailed out of port, bearing the pride of the Chinese fleet._

 _But the Abyssals had robbed her._

 _..._

The carrier Liaoning, not even an hour dead, looked up to see the heartbreaking sight of people she owed a debt she could scarcely repay, were crying for her.

She had failed. But they still cared.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Conversing in the Common Language of High Explosive

 _"War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other."_

-Paul Valery-

...

It was to be the largest naval offensive in the field of human conflict.

The navies of the world united against one enemy, so many ships in that offensive that it seemed impossible that the operation would fail.

The Abyssals could be killed. They were small, but with the fire power of whole warships, so it was sometimes hard to see them and hit them. Even though bad weather and darkness, with no UAV, satellite or reconnaissance craft, many times only the legendary Mark One Eyeball could find them. And humans had shipfuls of missiles and CIWS and artillery, so the Abyssals could definitely be killed.

The operation dubbed "Unity" called for a simultaneous counter attack on anywhere that was known to have Abyssal presence. Surely with this much of humanity's collective military strength on display they could at least push the Abyssals back, reclaim lost territory, and hopefully take the Abyssal's numbers

down a notch.

The alternative, that even this huge and powerful offensive would not be enough, that humanity couldn't assure victory even with the cooperation of the world's navies, was something no one wanted to consider.

This was meant to be a sign. A sign that humanity was no longer on the defensive, that they could bring the fury and fire power and match the Abyssals.

This victory, would give rise to the hope that more victories were not out of question.

...

 _The Kirov-class battle-cruiser, RFS Admiral Nakhimov, formally USSRS Kalinin, anchoring the centre of the vast Russian Navy formation along with her sister ships didn't want to admit it, but something good had come out of this war._

 _Before the war, the Kirov-class of warships were some of the heaviest and most powerful warships in the world. However in the chaos following dissolution of the Soviet Union had them worrying endlessly. Who would employ them? Who would keep them?_

 _The Soviet Union's "successor" now following the democracies that all the Kirov-class had been told to reject as they were raised, kept them. However the Russian Federation lost a great deal of its territories and seemed a shadow of its former self._

 _The Russian Navy had had to cut back on its running costs, and much knowledge was lost. The skills required to build capital ships seemed to wane, as the Russian Navy preferred smaller and cheaper vessels. Many of the older vessels, were scrapped, or simply left to rust._

 _Due to their age, the Kirov-class had encountered many technical problems. The eldest sister had suffered a reactor accident and been slated for dismantling. Admiral Lazarev the next eldest had been designated for the same fate, as there was little money to overhaul her, to get her back to modern fighting shape._

 _It seemed as if the fate of all battle cruisers would go in the same direction as battleships as well. The Kirov sisters would never fire a shot in anger, never fulfil its duty to the Russian people to its fullest._

 _..._

 _"Heads up."_

 _The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov disturbed her thoughts._

 _"Something seems to be happening, "said Kirov, lead ship of the Kirov sisters,_

 _"All my crew are going haywire. One of them is speaking on the phone to the President about using nuclear weapons!"_

 _"Targets have been spotted at extreme range." Kuznetsov's complement of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters were hurling themselves off the carrier, "One of them seems to be an Abyssal that is extremely dangerous."_

 _"The 'demons'?" asked Lazarev._

 _"Da. Affirmative."_

 _"No one knows how dangerous they really are," said Pyotr Velikiy, the youngest sister, "Their combat abilities are unknown because anything that goes into combat with them dies so quick."_

 _"No need to be nervous," Kirov cooed, "not when everyone is cheering us on. No need when there are so many of us."_

 _There were a great deal of ships all around them, but there were also many more ships supporting this operation from afar as well._

 _"Abyssals are launching fighter and bomber wings!" Kuznetsov declared._

 _Nakhimov knew that the Russian navy's sole aircraft carrier must be feeling the tension and responsibility._

 _"Good luck."_

 _"Everyone! Man your battle stations!"_

 _..._

 _Until then everything had gone well._

 _But the deeper the offensive went, the more and more tension and blame built up between the "cooperating" navies as setbacks, mistakes and rivalries had accumulated. It threatened the withdrawal of the participating navies as they lost confidence and trust with each other._

 _The 'Demon' though would be the one to end Russia's involvement._

 _..._

 _The fleet eagerly engaged the Abyssals. With the advantage of range from missiles- a technology that humanity hoped would never be picked up by the Abyssals- the fleet threw their ordnance downrange._

 _With the reports of mounting casualties on the enemy side, victory seemed assured, for this battle at least._

 _..._

Rear Admiral Chengli's teary gaze wandered listlessly. He idly noted that the port they were in was very busy, the amount of workers had at least trebled the naval bases numbers. Some refugees fleeing the Abyssals augmented their number as well as many native volunteers.

"Admiral?" The tall lady who Xian still didn't know seemed awkward.

"Sorry. You were asking about an Admiral earlier. But I need to be somewhere."

A sad look "Understood. Can I help?"

Xian didn't know who this person was.

"I'm just going to the loading area. Sorry I don't think I got your name?"

"Loading area? Will there be fuel, steel and ammunition there?"

Was she just looking for the loading area? Maybe she just needed to meet with someone?

"Yeah sure. Follow me."

Well there was nothing classified in the loading area to see. Otherwise the truck drivers would all need gag orders.

...

All along the walk to the back of the base, Liaoning, could feel the despondence as people heard the news.

"We lost a whole battle group?"

"It was made up from crews from the North Home and East Fleets."

"That means that's a whole lot of ships we just lost. We're in Dalian, there's nothing between us and the enemy!"

"Whose going to protect us now!"

Liaoning calmed herself. She was with a high-ranking officer. Maybe not her late Admiral, but she was sure that things would work out.

"They were sunk right outside Busan or something..."

"What are the South Koreans doing?"

"I heard on the news two in three of their navy is a fatality."

"The news? I wouldn't be surprised then if really two in three of their _country_ was a fatality."

"Calm down. We still have Seoul between us and them."

"I thought that was a ghost town. Ghost city. Same difference."

"Well to be a ghost town you still need to have an _intact building_."

...

Liaoning tries to tune all the negativity out by listening to another view.

"I reckon those ship girls we've been hearing about will stop them. There's bases in Southern Japan with these ship girls after all."

"Like heck the Japanese would help the CPC. Those things kick major Abyssal

ass. "

"I wonder when we'll get ship girls of our own."

"If we get them. The government ain't getting through to the Japanese."

Liaoning smiled.

...

 _The international offensive had been deemed to be too large, too powerful to stop._

 _No had considered what they were to do when the basket they had put all their hopes in, fell._

 _The enemy stonewalled their advances along every single front they were attacked on._

 _The coalition of human warships didn't even reach their key objectives, a slew of Abyssal strongholds._

 _When the crews and officers went down with their planes and ships, there was little to hold the line against the enemy._

…

The unveiling of Kanmusu had a profound impact.

The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, emerged as the world's leading superpower.

Now the Russians, the British or the Americans - who had lost almost all their super-carrier fleet at Operation Unity - had even suspected such a thing could happen. That such a thing as Kanmusu were

possible. That Japan would have the newest naval technology.

Even though they may have tried to hold onto their advantage, no technology stays new forever, especially if it was shown to be successful. The major navies of the world had managed to secure deals and traded for what could possibly salvage the war.

After Operation Unity, a disaster that had convinced humanity that even the heaviest fire power, the best efforts could not secure victory.

Their best had not been enough. And now their best could no longer be deployed to their defense any more.

Attack after attack. City after city. Victories cropped up but at too steep a price. Some had even adopted a "scorched earth" policy, using nuclear weapons to deny and destroy the Abyssals.

...

Loss after loss.

An American strike group, one of the survivors of Operation Unity, its super-carrier too far gone for repair, had been bait. Had sailed straight into an armada of Abyssals and used nuclear weapons to end itself and a substantial amount of the enemy.

The doomed defenders of the city Kamchatsky had hunkered down, taking months of bombardment before they finally starved in the siege.

The city of Seoul, had been razed to the ground with almost little warning. Many people fleeing the city were trapped and were massacred as the bombs fell.

...

"Yeah get the forklift while I lower the ramp."

The truck drivers had arrived with a veritable amount of supplies. One of them went to collect the forklift.

Xian chatted with the one opening the back.

Liaoning looked at the resources hungrily. Then suddenly without warning...

...

 _Squeal, crumple, crunch._

Was that the sound of metal breaking?

"So I was like, 'man my son is going to join the -' what in the-?!" the truck driver stopped speaking.

Well you couldn't blame him. Because it's not every day you get to see _a fucking crazy women mothafucking eating a can of oil, metal and all!_

 _Om-nom-nom, slurp, snuffle._

"A-a-a-ah-hhh..." the truck driver uttered.

Xian agreed. So much for truck drivers not having gag orders.

 **A/N:** If you guys have any ideas. Weapons free.


	4. Chapter 4: The Old Communist Bloc

Chapter Four: The Old Communist Bloc

 _"We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war."_

-Franklin Roosevelt-

…

 _The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer was rocked as their portside missile armament was prematurely ignited._

 _"Report."_

 _"The majority of the salve straddled our ship, except for one impact on our back section._

 _"Don't let up," said the captain, as the fire and smoke poured out of the missile cells situated on the upper decks, "unshadow missile ports aft of starboard sections and fire."_

 _"Some enemy vessels to the front, are circling around to our sides, sir."_

 _They couldn't estimate the amount of damage they were doing to the enemy. It was primarily due to the unfamiliar nature of the enemy and lack of visual confirmation in these conditions._

 _They had to hold. At least until the gaps in the flanks of the carrier strike group would cease being a problem._

 _"Sir, they have fish in the water."_

 _"Inform the forward gun crew to prepare the 127mm to receive visitors. Maintain course."_

 _"Y-Yes, sir."_

 _The captain could see that the enemy had launched torpedoes from directions almost perpendicular to each other. And they would roughly intersect where their destroyer would be in a few moments._

 _"Sir, our lowest elevations won't allow our gun to engage some of the torpedoes."_

 _"Set all forward missiles to intercept."_

 _The rain and night was briefly illuminated as columns of fire erupted from missile pods and exhaust systems as fingers of smoke arced towards their destinations._

 _They couldn't stop for anything, the captain thought. If they changed their speed or course, the destroyer would make for a bigger target for the enemy shells to hit._

 _The guided missiles detonated, showering the torpedoes in explosives and fragments. Those that weren't destroyed in the initial hellfire, were thrown off course, or detonated in the wake of these explosions. The forward gun finished off the rest._

 _"All missile magazines spent, sir. The gun needs a minute to reload."_

 _The destroyer was safe, although now it was charging headlong into the enemy._

 _They needed to find a way of disengaging without getting killed. They needed a compromise to turn the ship around and present the smallest opportunity to receive damage at the same time._

 _Destroyers were the more capable ships of withering punishment in the US navy. However the enemy weren't pulling any of its punches._

 _They were running on empty. This battle had been going on far too long. Only the anti-submarine torpedoes were left of their weapons. Those were impractical, inferior and slower to missiles, but there were few options._

 _"As soon as we begin our turning manoeuvre," most of the ship was actually in good condition, "cut our speed and let the momentum carry us around."_

 _Then the artillery shells cleared the top of their flight and plunged down into the upper decks of the destroyer._

 _BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

 _The ship had just entered the firing range of the big guns. Literally._

 _"Communications officer. Please hail the USS Carl Vinson for assistance."_

 _The captain watched as the operator received a less than enthusiastic reply. They needed help right now, because they very well couldn't evacuate the ship and survive. Not with this enemy._

 _"They're pulling out sir. They're sending the ships back to Pearl."_

 _"Well, tell the commanding officer to send some our way."_

 _The response was obviously negative._

 _"The CO of Carl Vinson just pulled rank on us, sir."_

…

"All hands, battle stations! This is not a drill!"

 _Holy shit me twice._

They were about to come under attack. And the crazy woman eating the oil can looked up.

After they'd had scooped their jaws off the floor, Xian made visual contact with the truck driver. There was authority in that stare.

 _Nothing, bar nothing, happened here._

The truck driver eye-balled him back, asking the obvious question. Xian just shook his head.

Xian put his hand on the crazy woman's shoulder and steered her forcefully away.

...

Her hunger was not quite sated, but there was an emergency!

Liaoning demolished the oil can and let herself be led away.

The base had exploded into motion. Fighters were scrambled. Gun emplacements manned. Warships were casting off. Ammunition was taken at breakneck speed to wherever it was needed.

There had had been another military installation that had been considered too strong, too well-defended to be attacked, and the lack of vigilance had been paid by that particular military.

Fortunately they had had their warning, but with the loss of that battle group, the whole eastern coast of China might have to be abandoned.

The Admiral was hurrying her to the very edge of the base. The building she was being led to seemed to be comprised of fresh concrete.

"Is this a bunker, Admiral?"

...

Xian cursed everything. This base would be compromised. All of those logistics and preparation would be wiped in mere minutes! And to cap it all off, the men and women he had been leading for months needed him right now!

But that would have to wait.

Because what he was about to do might save them all.

...

"No this isn't a bunker."

He reached the large doors that could have belonged on aircraft hangars.

Reaching the pedestal on the edge of the doors nearest to him. He rapidly typed in the code phrase into its touch screen and the doors shuddered.

 _fightingwithinferiorcircumstanceourancestorshavepassedontheworld._

Surprisingly for their size, they sprung apart quite quickly to reveal the inside.

 _..._

The purpose of the building was clear. It was stuffed with as much equipment as an armoury. The building floor and roof sloped gradually downwards until, at the very bottom there was a little basin of seawater. Another large set of doors divided this basin from the open sea.

Stacked high up to the ceilings were boxes and barrels. This was impressive because the building was surprisingly taller then its exterior had suggested.

The building seemed to have many other rooms and levels because she could see hatches and stairs leading in all directions.

The Admiral cracked open a box with a crowbar he had got from somewhere, and grabbed a composite bow with iron and laser sights from within. He handed it to her complete with a quiver stacked full of arrows.

"We weren't prepared for your arrival so you're just going to have to make do with these."

She inspected the arrows. Only one flight of six Shenyang J-15's when she could carry twenty-four, the experimental carrier-based aircraft that had developed for her while she had undergone modernization and refit. But there were full complements of Changhe Z-18 transport-, Ka-31 recon-, Harbin Z-9 utility- helicopters.

Her fairies immediately set to work prepping their vessel for war.

...

 _They had died so easily._

 _The Wo-class Standard Carrier smiled. It had been almost disappointing._

 _Strike that. It_ had _been disappointing._

 _The opposing carrier had barely even struggled. Some ships struggled and these were so satisfying to watch when those struggles were for naught._

 _After her deck had been set alight by dive bombers and then torpedoed, the hapless enemy ship had sunk. Its own unshapely fighters and those disgustingly ungraceful helicopters had been shot out of the sky as the ship had foundered and sunk. Those fighters hadn't even insisted on turn-fighting! What war did they think they were fighting? The Wo-class Standard Carrier had quickly shown them the error of their ways._

 _The Aircraft Carrier Demon then gave the signal._

 _The armada split and headed to different destinations._

 _..._

Xian waited, keying into various military channels of his radio.

"Can someone tell me how many aircraft they're sending?"

"Where are the shells for the anti-aircraft guns!?"

"Cycling and firing missile silos A1 to H7!"

"Are there any more rockets for the air-warfare troops?"

"The bastards! They've taken out the garages! We can't deploy mobile SAM vehicles."

"Anyone know if there is any reinforcements!?"

"Someone get the mobile command vehicle. They just took out our comms tower."

"Is the comms tower down? I can't contact the warships. "

"How many aircraft are they sending?!"

"Our runway has been hit!"

"This is the Coastal Defense Shi-(static)"

"The city authorities are evacuating the city! But whose coordinating with them!?"

"(static) god! We're sinking! (static) taking (static) water!"

"Send something to pick up the survivors!"

"Was that an explosion?"

"That explosion was probably our aviation fuel tanks. We're no use here, we're evacuating. "

"Has anyone sent up the evacuation order for us yet?"

"Everyone get clear! The control tower's falling down!"

"Get any helicopters left to evacuate all non-essential personnel right the fuck now!"

"I see Abyssal destroyers and cruisers. But we've lost a lot of our anti-ship armaments!"

"I'm ready."

Xian turned to and saw Liaoning. He had been given predictions before on what summoned naval personnel and their rig would look like, but not for the Liaoning.

On her left arm was her flight deck that was identical to her previous form's and per her design it sloped upwards at the end of the runway. Missile silos extended around her sides. Her island pepped over her shoulder, off to one side. She wore CIWS and AA gun wrist gauntlets.

Xian didn't know how to describe the boots.

She hadn't really changed her formal attire from before. Xian had only just realised that the office shirt and sleeveless jacket were the same as the man he'd seen in all the papers. That man had been her purchaser, Xu Zengping, and had gone bankrupt from the purchase. Everyone in the navy knew about Liaoning's hampered and epic transfer from Ukraine to China.

She also now had a hair clip, Xian idly mused. Probably her air search radar.

"Well we don't have much time. "

And that was when the roof collapsed on them.

...

Several tons of concrete and steel fell on the Admiral and he was buried. Liaoning shrugged off debris and hurried over to where she had last seen him.

"Admiral!"

Liaoning shoved off a huge block of structural girder off the officer. Miraculously, he was alive, the steel girder had somewhat shielded him.

"Go, "He coughed as dust and powder floated around him, "Deploy right now."

Liaoning couldn't disobey a direct order from an Admiral, and he didn't seem to be grievously injured. She ran off.

Xian took out the broken pieces of his radio, fishing in his pant pocket for the remote.

He had to get the damn door open.

...

All bases were to be put on high alert. All Kanmusu who were able to were to get ready to deploy in but a moment.

The distress call from a large Chinese battle group had been the first sign things were about to go very wrong. Then all contact with Busan had been lost as well.

barely a few hours later, the naval bases at Seoul, Dalian, Qingdao, Yantai, Jeju and Pyongyang had all reported overwhelming attacks.

No Japanese bases had been attacked. Primarily Chinese and both Koreas' military installations had been hard-hit.

It was reported that Abyssal air power was extreme.

China and both Koreas had launched as many air assets as they could.

Confirmed casualties had been bad enough. What was worrying was the amount of Chinese aircraft units that had been launched but they'd lost contact with.

Shenyang's 1st, 4th, 21st, and 30th Fighter Divisions and 11th Attack division, Jinan's 12th Fighter Division, Nanjing's 28th Attack Division, Beijing's 7th, 15th and 24th Fighter Divisions had all been reported to have all responded to the crisis and were missing.

Completely missing. Considering each air division comprised of 90-140 aircraft, if those aircraft were lost then casualties amongst the air forces alone must have been extreme.

...

"The Republic of Korea has confirmed 70% casualties amongst those who've sortied, " Ooyodo read out the reports, "No reports of losses from the DPRK, but apparently the North Korean air force has spotted the presence of between twenty-two to twenty-nine standard aircraft carriers and thirty-one to forty-four light carriers near the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. "

"What frightening power. " Nagato stated, "And we don't know the total number Abyssal warships in the Yellow Sea? ".

"No. "

"Give me the estimates of civilian casualties. "

...

It had only been possible to share reports like this in a crisis like this. The details of the order of battle from these nations was sensitive information. These nations would never had wanted the others to know their potential fighting strength and weaknesses.

But none of that really mattered now.

The United Nations had demanded the evacuation of as many coastal cities as they could. No one knew how such a huge armada had managed to sail all the way up to the Yellow Sea, bypassing all the patrols, without a fight.

And more importantly no one knew how to handle a humanitarian crisis like this.

...

After the advent of Kanmusu, it was an opportunity for the world to catch its breath.

...

The East China sea and Yellow Sea had meant to be safe.

But the Abyssals reminded humanity that day how little that could be taken for granted.


	5. Chapter 5: We need more ships damnit!

Chapter Five: We need more ships damnit!

 _"For should the enemy strengthen his van, he will weaken his rear; should he strengthen his rear, he will weaken his van; should he strengthen his left, he will weaken his right; should he strengthen his right, he will weaken his left. If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak."_

-Sun Tzu-

...

 _"Is there anything for_ us _to shoot at?"_

 _Kamchatsky was under attack by an Abyssal force that blotted out the sea. The Russian troops of the 151st Air Defense Battalion were expecting there to be an appropriately huge air presence to blot out the skies._

 _There was plenty for the rest of the military units involved in the battle to shoot at. But it seemed that the Abyssal didn't have any carriers here because there were barely any of their fliers zipping around._

 _They must be confident in the shortcomings of Russia's air force because they did have battleships and heavy cruisers for fucking days, bloke._

…

Just a while ago, Rear Admiral Xian Chengli had been pissed to find that much of the resources set aside for the summoning had disappeared.

However he was now reconsidering if it had been a lucky break that they had accidentally summoned a naval personnel earlier than expected, otherwise there would have been no naval personnel and no resources when the Abyssals had started attacking them.

From what they had gathered, the summoning ritual took variable amount of time and resources, depending on the relative complexity of the ship and the ship type.

Capital ships, like battleships or standard aircraft carriers, could take hours to summon. Once the resources allocated was sufficient, the ritual then involved using music or chanting, usually blasting off patriotic songs and repeating the desired ship's name and deeds.

Xian wondered how the summoning of the carrier Liaoning could have happened. After all, it was completely unplanned for. Sure there may have been a flotilla worth of resources in the summoning room at the time it disappeared, but no one should have started the ritual. Surely no one was listing off Liaoning's achievements and name for _**hours.**_

 _..._

 _A few hours earlier._

"Just wait here for a little bit," said the head scientist, "We'll move those resources to those circles in a little while."

He left.

The three workers who had hauled all the boxes and barrels of fuel, ordnance, bauxite and steel, waited.

And waited.

"Screw it, let's just move these resources to the circles," said the first.

"I don't know," said the second, "do you think the timing is important?"

"Let's just do it anyway. We'll get to leave earlier."

They began to move the stacks of resources to their designated circles.

"They didn't say anything about there being a particular time," said the first,

"Just that we had to wait."

"How many were we supposed to put in each circle?" the third scratched his head.

They paused.

"Just put all of them in."

They set about to do so

"I wonder what all these resources are for. "mused the second.

"We don't even know why we're doing this, "said the first.

"Well if the brass won't tell us, no point theorising why we're putting all these random resources into circles."

"Yeah, let's talk about something else, "agreed the third, "You know I've heard about the sick refit job they've done on the Liaoning."

...

 _Liaoning watched as her family, her battle group she was supposed to be leading, died and burned around her._

 _She and everyone else was dying._

 _..._

"They've got those new Shenyang J-15s for Liaoning. "

"Weren't they developing some sort of J-16 as well? "

"I don't know if that was for Liaoning though. "

...

 _Darkness_

 _Peace_

 _Warmth_

 _Liaoning had died before she had repaid her debt._

 _She died without fulfilling her duty,_

 _She died without honor._

 _She died without glory._

 _..._

"Yeah but even though the Americans were talking shit about the Liaoning, she still pulled through."

"Wait, so that story they said about Liaoning being developed into an amusement park wasn't the truth all along?"

"Maybe it was a hotel actually."

...

 _In all the darknesses, a small light flickered in the distance._

 _Liaoning stirred, casting aside the slumber that had settled in._

 _She curiously wandered up to the light._

 _There were repeated mentions of her name, of her history._

 _..._

"Blah blah blah carrier blah blah helicopters blah blah blah war blah blah."

"Liaoning blah blah blah weapons blah blah blah."

...

 _They were talking about her._

 _The light was strange. It reminded her of the aurora borealis. The strange dancing multi-coloured lights were very reminiscent of the strange phenomenon she had seen as she had grown up in the north._

 _As the lights flashed, they coalesced to form a circular opening. Liaoning curiously looked through._

 _..._

 **TOTAL TALLY:**

109,829 mentions of blah

627 mentions of Liaoning

 **Total Time elapsed:**

Unhealthily long on one conversation topic

...

 _She heard the call to duty._

 _But doubts formed in her mind. That couldn't be right. Surely they hadn't set out this many resources just for her._

 _But they were repeating her name, over and over, the words began to echo quietly, gradually increasing in volume to a thunderous roar._

 _There was no doubt about it. They were trying to bring her back intentionally! If you must insist I'll avenge my family and make sure the pride of the People's Liberation Army Navy wasn't misplaced!_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Destroyer

 _"I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep."_

-Alexander the Great-

…

The situation looked grim.

A few hours ago, on the demands of the United Nations, the countries bordering the Yellow Sea, where the Abyssal offensive was taking place, had updated the intelligence reports on to open channels.

The reports flooding in from the communication air waves all indicated staggering enemy numbers, the likes never seen since the failed offensive, Operation Unity in the early days of the war.

However there was one particular communique that was more shocking and agonizing than any other.

 _As of now, the Commander-in-Chief has stated that any Japanese Fleet girls will not be actively involved in the 'Yellow Sea Offensive'._

 _All Japanese Fleet Girls are hereby ordered to engage the enemy only when engaged and to not seek active battle of any nature._

 _This edict takes precedence over any orders issued for the duration of the conflict unless otherwise indicated by the Commander-in-Chief or Chief-of-Staff admiral._

…

The order didn't go down well.

"I don't understand why they don't deploy us when everyone else is going!"

The Kongou sisters observed the regular warships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force leaving the harbours of Kure Naval Base.

From what Aoba had told them, the high-ranked officers weren't willing to sacrifice the Kanmusu who they say as too valuable to lose in this situation.

So they were willing to use more expendable sailors and soldiers.

"They made us to protect Japan! Why did they tell us to stand down?" Hiei wailed.

"Have faith in the wisdom of our superiors," Kirishima said, although she sounded disgruntled as well,

"All orders vary in how hard they are to follow."

The eldest of the sisters, lead ship of the Kongou class was very quiet.

"Cheer up one-sama," that was Haruna.

"How can I when Teitoku is the one out there fighting?"

"Teitoku wouldn't have wanted you to be disturbed while he is doing his duty. And he's upon the helicopter destroyer Kaga, the most powerful ship we've got.""

The despondence continued and then the P.A. clicked on.

 **"Fast battleships Kongou, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna, light cruisers Tenryuu, Tatsuta and standard carriers Akagi, Kaga are to immediately ready for battle. This order comes directly from the Chief of Staff Admiral."**

 **…**

"Maybe the gods heard your prayers and granted us the chance to protect Teitoku."

"Nothing can stand in the way of my BURNING LOVE~" Kongou was now much more lively as they prepared their rigging.

"Maybe the superiors have taken into consideration of the consequences of not deploying us to Teitoku's side," Kirishima.

"Then let's go save Teitoku~"

The fast battleships charged at flank speed.

…

"Kaga-san hello~! Akagi-san hello to you too~! Where's Tenryuu-san and Tatsuta-san~?"

The stoic carrier that was Kaga balefully turned to regard the entrance of the sisters.

"What are you all excited about?"

"Obviously she's excited about saving Teitoku,"said Haruna.

"Not even cruel fate can deny my BURNING LOVE for Teitoku of course~" you can guess who that was.

"Is that what you think the mission is about?" Akagi-san looked as cheerful as Kongou had a few minutes earlier.

"Why? Are we not going to make sure Teitoku and everyone else returns safely?~"

The 1st Carrier Division looked at the other.

"Have you heard the latest update?" Kaga ventured.

"Why? What is it?" asked Kirishima.

"There were reports that the Chinese Navy finally got their own ship girls."

"What's wrong about that? They've been asking for years now haven't they?"

"The JMSDF didn't tell them how to get ship girls."

"So? If we aren't seeing Teitoku are we throwing them a celebratory tea party?" said an excited Hiei.

"We've been ordered to kill them, Hiei. We've been ordered to kill all the ones we can find."

…

The carnage ensued at Dalian.

Lin Jingfei wondered if her husband was alright.

When the news of the battle group's sinking of the coast of South Korea had come in, Captain Lin Jingfei had immediately had gone to see Rear Admiral Xian Chengli.

He needed to know.

While Xian had responded as well as any parent could be expected to, Jingfei had felt an inexplicable wave of impatience.

…

Lin Jingfei and two NCO's had taken firing positions in what little cover they could get to.

Firing the standard-service bullpup QBZ-95-1 assault rifles at those nimble Abyssal fliers, not even the armour-piercing 5.8×42mm DBP87 "heavy" rounds were doing anything but knock the fliers around a bit.

 _Boom!_

One of the NCO's was turned into a bloodstain.

As the captain turned around to regard it, the slackening of the volume of fire allowed one Abyssal to line up a strafing run.

…

She should have died that day.

After the advent of advanced ballistic missiles, warships had tended gradually from heavily armed and armoured behemoths. They had, in essence, moved towards a "battlecruiser" doctrine, able to dish the damage but not receive it. Or not as well as their predecessors might have.

The torpedo that had struck her ship had blown out the ship's fuel tanks, broken the entire super-structure and everything that wasn't under water already was on fire.

Captain Lin Jingfei rolled onto her back, her severed right arm falling off her as she did so. Her body was too in shock to even bleed. She was too exhausted to move any more.

What fascinated her were not the dead or the entrails on the bridge. She observed the colours, usually grey bulkhead and green monitors, had been supplanted with orange and red.

The kind of orange that corpses make when they're on fire. The kind of red that she was coughing up.

…

 _JS Izumo, lead ship of the Izumo-class helicopter destroyer, felt the warm blanket of the sea envelop her._

 _They had only wanted to force back the Abyssals that had bombed Seoul the other week. She imagined that the screams of her crew as they were trapped and fried alive by their own ship could be paralleled with the desperate ends that the people had met as they were cooked alive in their skyscrapers and homes, or in their cars and in traffic jams as they tried to flee Seoul that day._

 _They had fought with everything they could have._

 _Not that Japan could have sent very much, especially after the losses of Operation Unity earlier._

 _I don't want to sink._

 _At least her sister, Kaga would leave the battle alive._

 _I just want my revenge._

 _But her decks and magazines were burning. Her hull was crumbling._

 _As her sunk below the dark depths, she could feel an incredible tranquillity and warmth._

 _No._

 _She threw off the promise of rest. She wouldn't allow herself leave so easily._

 _But she couldn't stay could she?_

 _Her spirit ripped itself from the carcass that was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. She wouldn't allow the sacred ocean keep her down._

 _She was very aware just how sacrilegious and disrespectful she was being._

 _She also didn't care._

 _If she left she wouldn't know if or when she would get her revenge._

…

The captain's head lolled to the side and she could see the city of Seoul in the distance. Even as her flesh was steamed off her bones, she suddenly found the smoking ruins and rubble of the "Jewel of Asia" looked quite pretty. She choked back a sob and tried to reach for that fleeting emotion called happiness.

She found anger. Hatred. A hatred that scalded and burnt more than the pyres that cooked her.

She cried out as it chased away her tiredness as her unfeeling and sleepy mind was crammed back into reality. She was about to scream from all the pain she suddenly felt, but she heard thoughts that were not her own, felt emotions that were not hers. The pressure in her head muffled her ears and physically assaulted her thoughts.

Her comfortable and slowly fading consciousness, crushed by something else, Lin Jingfei's body moved to commands that were not hers, with an energy that was not hers.

…

Captain Lin Jingfei, commanding officer of the lead ship of the People's Liberation Army Navy Type 052D Destroyer-class, pennant number 172, stood up.

She should have been a corpse. Her spine had been snapped. You could see through the holes burnt into the torso. Her intestines and organs that had fallen limply out of their wounds, started moving again.

Blood covered her entire visage. She coughed up part of her tongue as she lurched out of the bridge.

But past all the bloodily dripping hair, her eyes were the most frightening part. To look into them was to invite the stare and violence of something not human back.

JS Izumo wouldn't die.

…

The captain's actions that day made her legendary.

Not a single soul in the Chinese Navy hadn't heard what she had done at Seoul that day. Her story was repeated by veterans and greenhorns alike.

Her ship had been the only ship left in the combat area with unspent missile magazines or any real weapons for that matter. She had somehow managed to proceed from the bridge of her ship all the way to the ship's weapon storage. She had then manually aimed and set off the remaining four high explosive anti-ship missiles by hand.

Her targets were the Abyssal Ta-class fast battleship and the remaining light cruisers.

All of the missiles hit.

…

What she had achieved was - as stated by the navy surgeon of the ship that picked her up when the Abyssals had retreated – "anatomically impossible even under better conditions namely not being more grisly body parts held together than human.".

To haul and fire those missiles with that accuracy would have required inhumane strength, instincts and a highly advanced targeting program to acquire the co-ordinates of fast and small targets. And surely she didn't have access to ship-grade electronics at the time because every circuit and chip in the ship had melted. That she had survived was also puzzling.

…

She had been written off from active duty after they had given her a miraculously clean bill of health.

Following that battle, any sudden impacts and loud noises would completely set her off. She would inexplicably break out into intense muttering and aggression.

Commander Lin Jingfei, was given the highest military decoration, the Hero's Medal, awarded for

"Outstanding contribution recognised by friendly units and valorous actions achieved under unfavourable combat conditions.". There was a footnote about how she'd managed to do more with a dying ship than almost any other ship that day.

…

Captain Lin Jingfei saw the Abyssal flier go into a steep dive.

"Oh no."

Futilely, she started to move out of its path.

A familiar sensation hit. She felt her willpower sap and her vision grow darker as her thoughts and emotions were shoved aside.

She accelerated faster than an Olympic sprinter on steroids.

The bullets strafed the position she had been in.

 _Boom!_

As the Abyssal flier pulled out of its dive, it was kindly introduced to a $550,000USD worth of 203mm,

180kg, Mach-4 capable air-to-air missile.

The J-15, confirming the hits of its P-12 missile, banked to the side. JS Izumo held a salute to the fairy pilot beyond the cockpit who briefly returned it.

 _Boom! Boom!_

The pilot fired a well-timed burst of 30×165mm from its Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 autocannon, catching two Abyssal bombers.

JS Izumo had been impatiently waiting for the supplies needed for her ever since Liaoning and the battle group had left Dalian.

Her husband had hinted at something called "naval personnel". Seeing now the small fighter passing by, she knew that somewhere, if the Abyssals hadn't gotten to it, there was enough supplies for at least one carrier. Maybe there would be enough for her.

She headed to the loading area.

…

"Good hits, good hits. Get another flight up."

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli spotted and called out the targets for Liaoning using binoculars and a radio.

The roof of the building had collapsed, affording a vantage point on to the battle.

"This is my last flight."

Liaoning gripped her last arrow to her bowstring.

She wasn't sure that even with the much-needed air cover, the defenders would prevail.

And then she heard the firing of unfamiliar jet engines and helicopter rotors.

…

"What."

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli saw Captain Lin Jingfei, hero of Seoul, walk into the open.

The defenders of Dalian had hugged what cover they could, going out into the open would allow the Abyssals fliers zipping around to get a perfect shot at you.

What was his wife doing out there?

…

"CV-6 Liaoning what is your status?"

Wasn't that the voice of that woman officer from earlier?

"All out of aircraft. I'm preparing my decks to receive the Shenyangs."

"They're out of ammunition?"

"Yes."

"Hang on. I'm heading for you."

Why would a regular human head out into the fray?

"No, you'll get hit."

"Don't worry I'm trained."

"Can you tell me where all these unfamiliar jets and helicopters and coming from?"

Laughter.

"Why me of course."

…

JS Izumo had been called a helicopter destroyer but many armchair historians and analysts criticised her for being too much like an aircraft carrier. Surely such a ship couldn't be for anything else other than offensives.

Well they were right about the carrier bit. In a pinch, Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force had replaced her some of her rotary helicopters with fixed-wing jets.

The aircraft had needed some adapting first since no aircraft had been designed by Japan's defense industry for more than half a century. Officially they didn't have any carriers, so there had been no jet-propulsion aircraft designed specifically for aship type that technically didn't exist.

The arrow she'd equipped was an adaption of the "Viper Zero", the F-2 multirole fighter in use with the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force since 2000.

 _Sayonara, little Abyssals._

…

The larger numbers of jet fighters eventually swayed the tide of battle in the defenders' favour.

The troops cheered as, inexplicably, the Abyssal aircraft and ships retreated.

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli didn't partake so enthusiastically in the celebrations.

…

"So is that why you were so distant in our relationship?"

"Hai."

The Abyssals had been beaten back temporarily, giving the defenders much needed breathing space.

Long-range communications had been re-established with news that the Southern Fleet was bringing up half of its assets to the aid of the east coast.

Outside Dalian the Abyssals were regrouping.

Many thought it was the imminent reinforcements of the large and powerful Type 055 destroyers and its escorts approaching Dalian.

Most wouldn't have guessed the truth.

"So," Rear Admiral Xian Chengli was shaking, "You are not my wife."

Because he was looking for it in all the commotion, he'd been spotting for Liaoning's aircraft and noted the strange new aircraft.

Once the Abyssals began their retreat, he'd traced back the aircraft to their origin.

His wife.

He'd radioed Liaoning to hide from prying eyes and then sprinted off to the woman known as Lin Jingfei.

She'd turned around, calmly lowering her flight deck as her complement landed.

"The canteen's still intact. Meet me there." Was all he could say.

"Your wife has been dead since Seoul," Izumo said coldly, "As she died, I took a copy of her personality and memories."

"Why?"

"I needed to stay here. I heard from a certain man that a whole flotilla-worth of resources was being gathered here from all over the country. "

"But why didn't you approach the Japanese?"

Izumo's stoic features didn't match the memories Xian Chengli had of his wife.

"Your wife's body was dying. I had just enough strength to complete your wife's lauded actions that day.

Her death was painful, I was causing her a lot pain. But she was satisfied because with my assistance, she managed to go down swinging a chunk out of the Abyssals.

I woke up aboard the Chinese relief force. I was kept under supervision for a long time as I recovered.

One day when I was asking you about your new postings and promotion, you let slip that you were planning to bring back ships. Back ships. I was interested. That specific wording.

How could you bring back warships?

Could that bring me, the helicopter destroyer, JS Izumo, back?

I looked through your files," Izumo continued, not the least bit bothered by that man falling apart in front of her, "And I concluded it would be in my best interests to stay here. Why should I disappear or make an excuse to return to Japan when I was told that you had a program here that could bring sunk warships back to fighting form?"

The rhetoric question was lost on the weeping man who, in the space of one day, had lost both his daughter and wife.


	7. Chapter 7: Same Problems, Different Days

Chapter Seven: Same Problems, Different Days

 _"The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war"_

-Norman Schwarzkopf-

…

"So in short, when I signed up for this top-secret outfit bringing back dead ships, I didn't realise that my wife had been replaced by one of those dead ships using me so that she could be one of the ships that we brought back.

The carrier that my daughter was serving on, was sunk and then came back as well. Japan has only sent a pittance of reinforcements to this conflict that threatens to completely destabilise the South-East Asian Region.

Our naval personnel, both of which were unintentionally summoned, were the only thing that saved us. I'm putting in those three workers for medals.

My superiors are putting me in for an investigation for sending out Liaoning, that nearly blew the secrecy and security of our program, and because my wife was actually a ship of Japanese origin, which raises a lot of questions as well.

Most of the equipment, people and facilities for our department are dead, wounded or been directed elsewhere.

Our reinforcements were ambushed and destroyed on the way to Dalian, so we might come under attack again very soon. It's not been a very nice and co-operating day has it?"

Boris Corschkov had to agree with his friend.

…

The one carrier and one helicopter destroyer that had been successfully brought back by the Chinese Navy were pulling the wounded to the canteen, one of the few buildings that had been unscathed in the attack and now served out first aid.

They had been ordered by an increasingly stressed sounding Rear Admiral Chengli to get back up to fighting strength and then stow away their rigging, but keep it close by for when the Abyssals came back.

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli had then given them both standard-issue uniform and sent them out to help the recovery effort.

The Admiral had not been able to look into the eyes of either of them and had dismissed them rather detachedly.

…

Both of the ships, although it was obvious that they belonged to different navies, maybe even rival nations, had quickly bonded over the fact that they had both had each other's back while they'd been in a whole world of hurt.

Izumo had been impressed at how calm the under-equipped carrier had been when she engaged that horde of Abyssal airpower with just six fighters and twelve helicopters. She had held up well for someone who had been alive in this form for only a few hours now.

Liaoning was impressed that Izumo repeatedly took the messiest and bloodiest jobs with little or no reaction.

Right now Izumo was performing surgery on a medic with their directions.

"You see the shrapnel?"

"Yeah it's embedded in your intestines."

"Give me more painkillers then."

…

While the Chinese naval personnel program had gone "smoothly":

"What the hell, "grumbled Boris Corschkov, "Apparently for the Chinese, summoning the ship girls just 'happened'."

"Just like your parents and you?"

Boris threw his shoe at the mechanic. Yet he still had both his shoes on at the end. What? Nikita Khrushchev approved.

…

There was no rest for Xian Chengli.

Not time to mourn with the battles still going on. After Seoul and with his 'wife' recovering in hospital, he had been posted in North Korea in an ongoing and secret effort to modernise and turn the nation into a bastion of Communism once more.

With the fall of the cities Seoul, Kamchatsky and the continuing violence upon many others besides, the Chinese government aid to North Korea had mushroomed. If the Korea Peninsula fell, who would the Abyssals take out next?

After all, allies give the enemy something else to shoot at.

China had participated and taken heavy losses in the Korean War to put physical distance between the US allies and itself. Materiel and men had been funnelled into that meat grinder for the purpose of maintaining that buffer zone. The times were slightly different, but the reasons were the same.

Half a million Chinese had died for that cause. They weren't going to let their sacrifices go to waste.

They'd sent over schematics and copies of the latest hardware, helped install the newest software and imparted as much know-how and training they could. As well as sending over a plethora of supplies and surplus military hardware. These secret efforts had ensured that the North Korea was still relevant in this fight.

With the sharing of intel for this battle, some were already levelling criticism on China and North Korea. They pointed out how reckless it was to arm a very unpredictable nation. They also said things like: What about after the war? What are you going to do if they threaten us in the future?

But those detractors couldn't argue that North Korea was pulling its weight. It was especially important since South Korea and its forces had been decimated. Although decimated actually had the subtle implication that one in ten died when in truth probably one in ten of those who hadn't evacuated the country after the fall of Seoul, were lucky to still be alive.

Xian had been asked to send a report to the United Nations of what exactly and how much had been accomplished and what the status of the whole North Korean military was.

It was a boring report, but since his superiors had stood him down for questioning, he had been given grunt work.

The questioning was not going to be pleasant. He could justify his actions for deploying Liaoning and the interrogators would just have to see the logic and demanding reasons that had pushed him to deploy the naval personnel out in the open.

His wife was going to be a different matter.

His superiors were just as incredulous as he was. The destroyer captain Lin Jingfei was dead. She had perished quietly, in the company of a stranger.

They'd attributed her strange behaviour afterwards to the trauma of losing so many friends and acquaintances as well as adjusting to new wounds. The truth of the matter had been too outlandish. The person receiving the highest honours for the battle were effectively two dead women.

One of them being a Japanese destroyer that had perished in the same battle that made the other famous.

…

 _Knock. Knock. Knock._

"Come in" came the weary reply.

The helicopter destroyer, Izumo manoeuvred cautiously into the room.

"What can I help you with?"

To be honest, the Admiral looked like shit, and he hadn't been one of the numerous wounded and corpses that she'd just been tending to.

"I, uh, just wanted to return some things."

JS Izumo took of the locket around her neck and dropped it on his desk.

She then tried tugging off her wedding ring.

The Admiral laughed, something neither of them expected.

"Good luck getting it off. Don't sweat it. Just keep it."

Izumo stopped. She was not sure what was going through the Admiral's head at the moment. She just saluted.

"Thank you. I'll keep it then."

…

Izumo retreated out. Her prosthetic right arm was going to need replacement. It hadn't been designed for high strength actions or launching aircraft for that matter.

Xian knew he'd only see his dead family in locket. He put it into a briefcase for when he got home.

Home. But there was really no one to return to now. He only had his job and country to fight for he supposed.

…

"Ah! Liao-san."

"Izumo, how is the Admiral?"

Liaoning was not aware of what had transpired between the two.

Izumo wasn't wearing her necklace any more, Liaoning idly noticed.

"He'll get better. I hope."

Not a comforting answer.

"Anyway, the chief petty officer once us to help move the wounded out of the canteen. They also want us to wash the blood off the food."

…

Night time.

The defenders of Dalian guessed that the Abyssals would probably attack soon, or at dawn.

If they attacked at twilight, they would be able to conduct the infamous twilight torpedo attacks with full air support.

Or they could attack later that night, and their air support would be limited by the quality of their night-fighting equipment.

Izumo sat on the stairs leading up to the canteen. She sighed as she held up her left arm to the stars.

Now that she was a ship back up to strength what should she do now?

Her loyalties and duties stated that she should be heading straight back to Japan.

The pretty rose shaped diamond ring sparkled as it caught the harsh illumination from what could be described as stadium floodlights.

She listened to the defenders of Dalian. She tweaked her communications suite and translation software to factor in all the different accents and languages.

"The city has evacuated but South Korean refugees are set to pass by as well."

"Keep away from the cables. We need those lights or the enemy will rip us a new asshole."

"We might be able to raise our ships that've sunk. Some didn't sink into places very deep."

"It's your shift now. I left the RPGs in that crate over there."

"I wonder how the fight is going elsewhere."

"How long are we going to be here?"

"I can't eat that food when they haven't cleaned half my platoon out of it."

"I'm sorry, evacuees can't stay here. I know it seems safer but we're expecting another attack."

"We don't have enough morphine to kill all the heavily wounded. Find something else."

"We've hung up the radio tower with ropes. It should work fine."

"The missile in silo K12 is damaged. Keep clear."

"We just lost the one over here. Next."

"Northern anti-aircraft gun emplacements have been repaired."

"The Ground Force has set up automated defences. Those Abyssals are going to feel the heat."

"This is Mughal One. We won't land until you've cleared the dead off the runway."

"You should have to rest. I know it's hard now that you're blind, but please stay calm."

"We finished pulling the bodies out of the control tower. Or where it used to be."

"Nothing friendly is coming up our way from the sea. They just destroyed our reinforcements."

"I heard that the force they sent from Japan didn't actually fight."

The mention of her country had Izumo at attention. She hadn't considered how her country would have been affected.

"Japan wasn't attacked was it?"

"No. They're just sitting there while the rest of Asia burns."

"They wouldn't one to get involved when this could finish off their competition."

"Honourable gits, my foot!"

"Apparently their ships were ordered to only fire to scare the Abyssals away from their ships."

"Maybe they're herding them towards us."

"They just want to be doing something."

"They just run if the Abyssals come too close."

"Didn't even pick up the survivors of Seoul when they ran."

"I reckon we're going to survive these attacks. But we're going to be too weak next time."

"Hey guys! Don't mope over there and give this poison to the dying."

Izumo tried reaching for the comfort of self-righteous anger or battle lust. She could only find wetness in her eyes.

It wasn't even her country. Wasn't her people. She could barely plumb the depths of their despair.

She'd left her Admiral as he had fallen apart in front of her. She convinced herself that she was leaving because there had been nothing left to say. She had run down the hallway leading away from the office.

She was terrible to speak like that to the man. She'd barely considered the ramifications of masquerading as the man's wife. She was a terrible person. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

"Izumo?"

Izumo quickly fixed her stiff mask onto her face. But there were still tear in her eyes. How to wipe it away stealthily?

"Y-Yeah?"

60,000 tons of Ukrainian-born Chinese carrier sat down next to her.

…

"Thank you for fighting for my country."

Izumo sniffled a bit. Liaoning hadn't prepared a speech, but she hoped speaking that her gratitude would get through with the words.

"You have the thanks of all the people that are here because of you.

Not just because you saved their lives, but you also ensured that there would still be a place for the people who want to protect and believe in, to also be here as well.

You lived up to everything noble and selfless, true and universal when you stood with my countrymen so that others may have the chance to live, the chance to save, the chance to fight with that almighty fire in their souls and a prayer on their lips.

You have the thanks of my country.

You, who could have left us to dry, could have let evil, greed and indifference triumph, as all good-intentioned people let triumph when those who polish their arms, their laws, their privilege, their comfort, and let rust their duty, their compassion, their willpower, their honour.

I do not confess to offer adequate platitudes and fame for your actions.

I can only say that having joined our cause, the blessed and the truest promise that any truly great military aspires to, is also the quietest and most under-appreciated of promises.

To fight as long as we draw breath, so that others may draw breath.

To fight as long as we can protect, so that others may be protected.

And that this promise, which has been carried out by all before us and now must be upheld for those guardians of justice who can no longer.

I, Liaoning, thank you for service on the behalf of my people."


	8. Chapter 8: Chairforce One

Chapter Eight: Chairforce One

 _"Freedom is a fragile thing and never more than one generation away from extinction. We do not pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the world where men were once free."_

-Ronald Reagan-

…

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the President of the People's Republic of China, the most powerful person of that nation, felt the weight of just how much more he had to achieve.

The fight had been easy to ascend to this spot. The Communist Party determined their new leader and the other political party, United Front, was only there to signal superficially that China had its democratic freedoms as well.

The fight when he got to this spot? Well.

Every new leader had to fight back at the old regime to effect any change. It was a cycle to be repeated. His predecessors had beaten back the puppets loyal to their preceding leader, and then installed their own puppets. That was the nature of getting any new effective policies or change, puppets in the right positions. So even when they had no official presence or say on the country's politics, the old leaders had the grips on the Senate and had given him no end of trouble.

The only solution had been to find reasons for and gradually replace those in important positions with sympathisers. By imprisoning, retiring, and other – ahem – ways, could he hope to lessen the influence of these old timers who could very well stonewall any policies and change they didn't like.

Damn conformity.

Before the war, many people had talked about the Sleeping Tiger of Asia, wondering if it would emerge as a globe-spanning super-power. Other countries had pointed out the pre-war militarism and as if they were convinced that it wasn't the US master race marching troops through their countries.

Truthfully the President would not have thought so before the war.

It became second-nature in any institution to tell who was the real deal and who was just riding the escalator up to their positions and power.

The pre-war military of China had been a stew of nepotism and corruption. Sure the government crushed down dissent and made sure that the country was internally stable and united, but he couldn't well expect his country to commit to war. The most prestigious and responsible commands were held by the most trash officers he'd ever seen. Their units had become their political self-indulgent toy and were almost feudally loyal to their top dog.

He'd thought he'd never really need the military, to be honest. He wasn't going to start something and declare war on anyone just because it was exciting or because it stimulated the economy or because he wanted to prove something.

And then the fateful day when the entire status quo changed.

The early days of war with the Abyssal had been mostly handled by other nations. Even if the Abyssals were a stone's throw away from China, he wasn't willing to invite the crucifixion of others on the international stage because China looked too enthusiastic in defending itself.

Then things had started happening far too quickly. The navies that had participated in a very large and altruistic and noble offensive to blow the ever loving stuffing out of the enemy in a most spectacular orgy of violence and rape and lemon juice, had, of course, refused to give the Chinese Navy the time of day, or the co-ordinates.

Well, looks like NATO and all those grateful invited nations have this in the bag. Let them deal with it.

And China had ended up a lot better off than those who'd deployed, by dint of not taking part in the most catastrophic failure of military thinking since a certain Chaplin-faced, Napoleon-tryhard leader decided to invade a certain icy country without jackets.

Well… great. The guys up front are dead and they were better fighters then we were.

And despite China stepping up their military commitments to other countries, the nations who pretended like the other super-power nations didn't have defense contractors running around making them another newer and better and more inventive ways to put down the enemy with extreme prejudice, had obviously laid down the hurt on this, which, quite objectively, took balls of tungsten carbide when you're fighting this unknown and terrifying new foe that had run roughshod over them.

The Chinese military had been well-trained, well-equipped, but mostly untested. It's not like they actually did install those puppets in the Middle East just to deny democracy.

For the record, those were _relief supplies_ we were sending, not weapons, and the press would have laid us to the Kraken if we, as a UN member, hadn't sent those supplies.

But every decision that was made would be run through the gauntlet no matter what.

So the President sighed and asked for the update of the running battles taking place. He would need a lot of the same material balls and advisory support as well.

He had to make sure he played his hand exactly right.

Even the best fortunes would be met by attacks from the press, and at least some, if not all, of the international stage. It just was a matter of diverting their attentions somewhere else so that things could get done.

But the situation wasn't really conducive of this because of the crisis.

He just needed a sign that the time was right.

…

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli had obviously sent over an email with as much details he could about the naval personnel they summoned to a headquarters that could actually use the information.

They had replied and given him some predictions and opinions.

…

 _"As long as the Japanese Self-Defense Forces continue to believe that we do not possess the technology to summon naval personnel and are still in the market for its acquisition, we can hold onto their JS Izumo._

 _If what she recounted to you was true on the day of that battle of Seoul, then this would indicate that the Izumo-class can take extreme firepower and advanced damage control._

 _Under what conditions it takes for humans to be possessed by the souls of warships can only be theorised._

 _The Type 52D destroyer was the last warship with any meaningful firepower in that whole area. The vengeance and fear experienced by JS Izumo as she was sinking prompted her spirit to violently reject her death. As the captain of the destroyer was one of the few still alive and still possessing motor functions, no matter how damaged, she became the receptacle of the ship's spirit. That spirit just wanted to do damage to the enemy fleet._

 _We now know that the spirit destroyer's captain perished very shortly after the possession._

 _Whether this could be because she was already dying, or the ship's spirit occupation, or something else raises a lot of questions that we do not possess answers to. The underlying theory of capturing ship's spirits after they have died was once thought to be restricted to the constraints of the summoning ritual._

 _Keep a close watch on JS Izumo and discover as much as you can. If at all possible, hold onto her as she can be a catalyst for invaluable information._

 _PLANS Liaoning was summoned the very hour she had been sunk, but for at least a few hours before her revival, the summoning room was unknowingly undergoing the summoning ritual for her._

 _It appears upon her sinking, she still heard a record of what was said. We believed only when the ship's spirit has been separated from their hull, would they be able to be summoned._

 _Whether this means we can prematurely trigger summoning rituals for naval personnel so that they are quickly ready to be summoned is unknown._

 _Currently the stream of assets needed for the summoning of more naval personnel have been disrupted. We do not reasonably expect any more ships to be summoned, however accidently._

 _The investigation into you has been dropped as it would be counterproductive in the current conflict and the forecasts of our military planners very much expect conditions to worsen._

 _One positive though is that we now know how effective naval personnel can be. PLANS Liaoning checked the enemy's invasion while JS Izumo tipped the battle in our favour._

 _A psychological analysis suggests that JS Izumo is questionably loyal our navy. She attacked the Abyssals, not as our comrade, but as violent retaliation. We strongly encourage you to keep JS Izumo in as excellent a mental psyche as possible. If we get in her good graces, we may be able to possess Japan's largest and most advanced warship to date._

 _Reply whenever and whatever."_

 _-The Sick Lads at HQ-_

…

Keep her mental psyche okay. Get in her good graces.

What a tall order.

…

Liaoning had shamelessly stole most of her speech from the President's address right before the mission that sank her.

Izumo didn't appear too familiar with the original speech so it was all good.

Liaoning watched as the destroyer looked up at the stars and said determinedly:

…

"Well I'm glad I'm here."

She would fight with all the pride, professionalism and fury of the Japanese Navy. She didn't need orders or accolades. She still couldn't believe at how cowardly her Navy was doing, but maybe she could balance the gross injustice and wrongs by being here.

"Izumo?"

"Hm?" Izumo snapped out of her reverie, "What is it Liao-san?"

"Did you lose your necklace or something?"

"No. I stowed it away."

"Ah. I see."

Both of them looked at the stars. In the middle of a military base with the soldiers hurrying all around them, preparing for an imminent battle that might destroy them, they found it as peaceful and tranquil as a wartime recruiting office.

"Izumo? Is that a wedding ring?"

"Oh this? This is the ring the Admiral gave me."

"So what's the story behi-"

 _Thud, crash._

Everyone in the immediate surroundings stopped what they were doing as their attention was arrested to the epicentre of the disturbance.

…

"… We were discovered."

Kaga attempted to rouse the unconscious form of Kongou.

There was the rustle of fabric and then the click of a sizeable number of weapons pointed at the strange-looking pair. Assault rifles, anti-tank weapons, mortars, RPGs, grenade launchers and a well-intentioned MRE to name a few.

Kongou and Kaga had been camping atop a tree, performing recon and trying to ID their targets.

Although both highly disagreed with the mission, the highest ranking Admiral had personally issued the mission.

Both ships had been picked for a low-profile scouting because both ship girls were admittedly very stealthy when they were spying on people. If they needed to, they were a standard carrier and a fast battleship, so they could physically overpower any enemy ship girl if required.

The rest of the ship girls sent on this mission were ready to carry out the extermination orders.

Although ship girls could deploy the rigging on land, they were more far easier to manoeuvre and use with the assistance of buoyancy.

They had listened to that very long-winded speech, hoping that such an obnoxious sounding person would hint at something.

 _"I, Liaoning, thank you for service on behalf of my people."_

Bingo.

Kaga had been radioing the rest of the ship girls to prepare their assault.

Then the recipient of the speech had said that her wedding ring had been given to her by the Admiral.

That had knocked Kongou out and blown their cover.

"Kaga to all kanmusu! Engage now!"

…

"Phew, we finally got everything in base fixed and then some."

The base's original defences and facilities had been patched up and held up. Although they were held up more by liberal amounts of tape and prayers more than structural integrity, it would have to do until more permanent repairs could be carried out.

At least last until the Abyssals weren't threatening their livelihoods.

And then a 356mm shell knocked over the recently fixed radio tower. Again.

The engineering teams looked over with dismay and exasperation as the entire base's recently repaired original defences and facilities and then some were hit.

….

They were silent as the sounds of propeller-driven aircraft, artillery shells and explosions blasted the air.

"Really? We must have the worst early detection equipment this side of Pearl Harbour."

…

Upon hearing her words, they opened fire.

To the Chinese soldiers' and sailors' shock, the bullets simply glanced off, not even scratching the skin.

They had then let loose with their more deadly weapons. Rockets, grenades, anti-tank bullets, an MRE.

The intruder, Kaga, couldn't withdraw herself and Kongou without the opposing ship girls engaging her. But she could only force them back by engaging them and leaving Kongou exposed.

So she went on the offensive since Kongou's armour would have to hold up.

She set emergency speed to the European-looking girl.

Liaoning had been laid down at Shipyard 444 in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and been raised by the Soviet Navy. She did it as the movies and stories did it and executed the legendary Order No. 227: 'Not One Step Backwards.'

She didn't flinch and tanked the momentum of a 40,000 ton carrier ramming her. Kaga, not expecting the larger girl's displacement, was set flailing back from the impact and she was Putin a positively monstrous Russian Bear hug by Liaoning.

The smaller girl with Asian features exclaimed.

"Please call off the attack! These people don't want to fight you."

The soldiers and sailors, who had reached for larger calibre weapons and vehicles, surrounded them.

"Ok, fine! They're more than ready to fight you, but please stop it!"

Kaga stopped struggling and looked contemptuously over to her out of Liaoning's immovable hug.

"And why should I do that? Who tells the Japanese Navy what to do?"

The answer shocked her and the heavily armed crowd.

"JS Izumo, lead ship of the Izumo-class helicopter destroyer, I'm Japanese Navy as well."

…

"Tell me what's happening Kaga!" Tenryuu demanded.

The others who were busy shelling – except for Akagi who just launching waves upon waves of aircraft - and taking out the area responsible for the base's coordination and communications.

"There has been an unexpected development." came Kaga's disdainful tone.

"That could mean anything!"

"There's been a misunderstanding."

"Stop being so cryptic and tell us already what the problem is!"

"Switch comms to unencrypted, open channel."

Disgruntled at not being in the loop, they all moved to obey.

"This is JS Izumo calling to all Kanmusu to stand down!"

?!

The flagship that had sunk leading Japan's task force with the international force responding to the battle of Seoul?

"Stand down, or, eh, your aggressive actions will be condemned. Um, you don't want to create an international incident do you?"

…

"You're seriously not deploying the Kanmusu because of that reason!"

The anger and dissent amongst the girls selected for the extermination mission was palpable.

"These orders come directly from the highest-ranked military officer in Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force," Nagato, trying to having her words heard over their clamour, "The order for standing down ship girls and not be seen participating in the defense of the Yellow Sea was issued to direct suspicion away from this mission."

So the order that forbid the ship girls of Japan to get involved in the pressing conflict and defend as best as ship girls could, was so that they could go and kill off the Chinese own ship girls without anyone thinking it was them.

"But the Chinese need the ship girls and they need them now!"

"If we aren't sending ship girls they should keep their ship girls!"

"This is bull-"

"SHUT UP!" Nagato roared, "I know that this is not a popular order."

"Why do our superiors want their ship girls dead?"

"Wouldn't more ship girls be great?"

"Why would you use ship girls to destroy other ship girls when we can all-"

"Our superiors refuse to leave such potent armaments in the hands of the Chinese," Nagato said firmly.

"But-"

"SHUT UP! If you don't want to go on this mission, fine! But then you're going to have to answer for yourself for not completing the express objectives set out by our superiors. "

"Why?-"

"Our superiors would be very displeased if you threw away their preparations for this mission," Nagato hated this as much as them, she really did, "And this has cost the chance for everyone to get involved in the fight so you better complete the mission to the utmost of your ability!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Letting the Carrier out of the Bag

 _"Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip."_

-Winston S. Churchill-

…

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli could only call the President.

"We didn't need the contingency plans."

He hung up.

…

He wasn't a real soldier. When the Chinese troops engaged the intruders he'd only had those inedible military food packets close by.

So he'd thrown the MRE's into the crossfire.

To have done anything else would have been too suspicious.

…

The President of China steepled his hands together.

He never expected the enemy to have gone so far to cover up their tracks.

"Sir. The nuclear yield weapons are on the move per your instructions. When do you want them armed?"

"Sir," said another of his attendants, "The press are here. When do you plan to air the conference?"

"Soon."

He couldn't wait much longer though. The curtain should have been closing on this show a while ago.

…

Boris Corschkov and his team had tried to summon back the ship spirits with no success.

He'd told his friend that he'd be updated on their progress. But so far nothing had materialised.

Something at the back of his mind told him he was missing something very simple.

There were mounds of bauxite, steel, fuel, ammunition, vodka and even a copy of Boney M's "Rasputin".

 _Beep._

One of the engineers looked at the update from his phone.

"Who tells the Japanese Navy what to do?" came the audio.

…

"Who tells the Japanese Navy what to do?".

From her position in the larger carrier's vice-like embrace, Kaga looked over at the very conspicuous man from who'd been throwing food at her before. In his hands were clutched one of those new communication gadgets from this era.

They'd taken out all possible forms of long-range communication. It had been a thorough job. They were supposed to keep this sneaky anyway.

Those devices weren't even good at communicating much anyway, Kaga mused. She remembered Yubari had said that they were better for looking up the internet or social media.

Oh.

They hadn't taken out the internet.

…

 _The Wo-class Standard Carrier had been tasked with destroying the miscreants._

 _She'd ordered a withdrawal when the presence of two of the most criminal existed had made been themselves felt._

 _Annoyingly, for almost the entire day and night, there had been flying contacts just on the extreme edges of her radar._

…

Boris read over the news updates now coming in concerning the events at Dalian base.

 _"Modern Japanese destroyer makes a stand against Imperialist aggression"_

 _"How Japan turned tragedy to their advantage."_

 _"Geopolitical fallout expected to boil over into-"_

They'd been so stupid.

…

They were out of time.

He'd turned and beckoned over one of his aides.

Issuing the order to set off man-made suns was not nearly as dramatic as in the movies.

It was time to reveal his hand and hope it was enough.

He walked into the conference room filled to the brim of the press.

It looked like many of them were now receiving the news.

Many countries looked down on China for government-controlled news, propaganda and their crackdown on political perspectives.

But just this once, or maybe again sometime, the unleashed emotion of the people would bring about victory.

He walked up to the podium even as their various gadgets filled up with updates.

"Ladies and Gentlemen.

When the earlier events of today transpired, we could never have guessed at the tragedy that would befall us.

The heroism continuously displayed by those tasked with defending the civilians as the country-wide evacuation of the Korean Peninsula takes place is not restricted to no single nation.

Every nation who shared even the smallest shreds of duty and sympathy for troubles close and far, have banded together, throwing away their greed, pride and selfishness, in the name of global cooperation.

However there is one nation that didn't share in our sorrow."

Japan had thought its royal flush would let it get away with its shit. Now all the desperation and frustration and negativity would be channelled in their general direction.

The press would force-feed Japan its own shit and film it live.

All he had to do was let their fear and the facts line up.

…

 _Wo-class Standard Carrier detected thousands of new contacts approaching in a completely new direction._

 _The contacts that had shadowed them all along now began to accelerate, closing in to engage when they hadn't before._

…

"…

When they've strenuously kept the secrets to summoning the spiritual. We feared the worst, but hoped for the best.

Fitting warships into humanoid form, allowing humanity to take the enemy head-on.

Perhaps there was an uncanny comparisons between these new ship girls and Abyssals, as they had the same advantages.

You've all heard that none of these ship girls had engaged the Abyssals. Initially we thought that it was the Abyssals not attacking them on first sight, as they usually and was very uncharacteristic of them. But they we believe that such a large number could only have bypassed the patrols set by Japan and slipped into the East China Sea, because they didn't attack the Abyssals.

They proceeded through the territorial waters of Japan.

You've all heard that Japan remains untouched. How can this be so when the lay right in the armada's path?

It was they had made no intention of stopping them and sat tight as the rest of us burned.

We now have reason to suspect that Japan has created the Abyssals themselves.

China has observed anomalies between the Abyssals and what Japan apparently developed in response.

If that wasn't enough, look at the composition of the militarisation program that Japan has set up. All of the ships that had allowed Japan to rise to power and commit genocide?

What does this say about the nation we've entrusted with this much power?"

So much bluffing, but every word, phrase and implication would be published and be deemed official fact.

…

One of the pilots from the apparently "missing" Chinese air divisions opened up a communications channel with the North Korean squadrons.

These North Korean squadrons had had accurate positions and strength of the Abyssals since the beginning. There had been no casualty reports from them all day because they're been nothing to report. Their purpose in this battle had been determined from the very start.

Dropping all manners of torpedoes and ASM into the Abyssal closed formation of warships that had been deemed impossible to approach without receiving enough flak and shells you could physically walk on it, the combined thousands of Chinese and North Korean aircraft wiped out the problem that had plagued them all day like it had been rehearsed.

The Aircraft Carrier Demon and whatever was left socialised nicely enough in the company of the several dozen "low-yield" "tactical" nukes.

…

The President of the People's Republic of China left the conference room in mass hysteria.

As if to reiterate the bombshells he'd just dropped, the news that the Chinese and North Korean air force had completely obliterated the problem with nuclear ordnance had just arrived. Almost as if it had been timed.

Why did they have to fight by the Abyssals' rules when these two nations had achieved nuclear power after all?

Japan had gotten arrogant when they'd developed ship girl technology. But nothing rubbed the saltshaker into their wounds when China had used nuclear weapons to save the day and restore stability to the world.

…

The loss of carrier battle group in the earliest phase of the conflict had been seen as an opportunity by the President.

While sending out the necessary orders, they had been caught off guard by the United Nation's call for military cooperation.

So they'd had to apparently lose contact with many of air divisions and inferred that the losses of the Chinese were horrendous by association with the damage being dealt to South Korea who had lost almost all that remained of their depleted force.

The North Koreans had played the crucial part in the final strike, but also throughout, having tracked the locations of each the Abyssal fleets using modified long-endurance aircraft, they'd given the opportunities to other nations to spectacularly fail and humiliate themselves in their attempt to take on the Abyssals.

They'd planned for Japan to get caught in the mess too, maybe hurt the reputation of their navy and ship girls, but as luck would have it, a far better opportunity had arisen as the Japanese would learnt of the existence of China's naval personnel program and reacted as they did.

This is where the timing of all the elements had to come together.

It had nearly been messed up. The President had thought that the Japanese discovered China's naval personnel program when Liaoning and Izumo shown themselves the open. He'd estimated the times on that fact.

That wasn't how the Japanese caught a bit of the truth. With Dalian's communications still in need of repairs, shortly after the Abyssals had withdrawn from Dalian, it had been the emails between headquarters and Dalian that had thrown flags all over Japan's databases.

The President of the People's Republic of China wanted a spectacular finale and he'd got it.

In regards to the Japan's ship girl program, the Japanese fleet was now the target of a South Korean-led investigation citing more formal regulation and the need for openness.

With the worsening situation looking to be unresolved, China's nuclear weapons program spoke for itself and ended much of the threat.

As for having a naval personnel program, the only one who'd identified itself on the media was obviously a Japanese ship. Liaoning hadn't identified herself, so they'd managed to pass her off as a result of Japan's program as well.

Officially, these ships had joined the Chinese navy citing unsatisfactory conditions in Japan.

…

"Ah, so you'd just needed to find the relics of the Soviet Union's nuclear submarine fleet."

"The piles of nuclear material weren't enough," Boris said, "Shipboard nuclear reactors are extremely complicated and variable in materials. So we took a few of them back with us."

"What did Kirov say?"

"She said it was typical of the unappreciative Russian Federation to leave useful parts lying around, and very short-sighted as we don't have a fleet budget approaching the Soviets."

"Who do you want to have next?"

"The rest of the Kirov sisters of course."

"Are you going to bring back your carrier?"

"The resources needed for summoning is huge. We won't have anything left."

"Do you think the price was the real reason Japan only brought back their older ships."

"Maybe it was cheaper. Isn't your carrier the same class as ours?"

"Are you suggesting that we should bring her back?"

"Well why not? I hope your well, because I've been hearing strange things about the Chinese military lately."

"No cause for worry. I promise. We're not called the Sleeping Tiger for nothing.

…

"Liaoning. Izumo. Please take a seat."

The two ship girls had been thoroughly confused when the Japanese fleet sent to stealthily destroy them had retreated from all the attention.

The evidence of the attack had been uploaded using the lightning fast military internet.

Didn't take long before Japan had reversed its orders far too little, far too late.

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli always hated messes of the political kind.

They were generally more complicated than the shooty kind.

Political messes always involved having to remember who said what, why they said it, what did they really mean, what should have been said, when it should it be said, how it should be said and more.

Thankfully the President had been up to the task of directing them and keeping them focussed.

"Japan's military inspection spans all the Japanese ship girls and we've covered ourselves by saying that you're both Japanese, temporarily seconded to the Chinese. So that means that both of you will have to attend."

"But they know I'm not actually Japanese Navy," Liaoning said sharply.

"Both of our nations have had to make… certain concessions with each other. We've passed you off as summoned by the Japanese to the press. We were considering a false identity, but that's really stretching it."

"When do we leave?" asked Izumo, who wasn't sure uncertain to be excited or not to be returning home.

"As soon UN sends a ship to pick you both up. We'll tell you."

…

They had finally solved the issue of supplying their ship girl program.

He'd never imagined that unassuming Chinese emails would be this vital.

It had described the rebirth of the JS Izumo. She hadn't needed crippling amounts of resources for the initial summoning. Her spirit had returned on its own, and she'd only needed a much smaller than expected supply when she'd taken possession of a human body, her running costs basically, to be brought back to strength.

…

A mass of tubes led into the slowly dying girl strapped to the gurney.

Together they gradually upped the dosage of poison, condemning her to a very slow death.

…

After all they were curious to know the exact moment the human mind left.

...

They could just circumvent the costs for a summoning ritual. The only cost as far as they could tell, was just one human life.


	10. Chapter 10: Co-Prosperity

Chapter Ten: Co-Prosperity

 _"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."_

-Dwight D. Eisenhower-

…

They were scheduled to go to Japan after the first wave of inspectors gutted, blamed and plumbed that carcass that was once remotely resembled Japanese military command. It was a witch hunt to find if any of the rumours and accusations had actually truth in them.

In the weeks following the attacks, it was for those left behind to carry out that time-honoured tradition left behind for every survivor to carry out.

They had picked up the pieces of their old lives and tried to fit the pieces back into that sort of elaborate jigsaw puzzle that was the stability and routine. They had found most of the pieces too shelled and snapped and shot, too bloodied and burnt and broken. These pieces of their previous lives were tucked away so those ones that still somewhat fit the old puzzle would seem appealing enough to mislead them that the promises and wills of the lost were still adequate in the battered pieces that remained.

Only Dalian's ports and military outposts had needed repairs. Circumstances dictated that the enemy had not damaged the civilian parts of the cities to the worst possible extent.

The Rear Admiral declared that as soon as they'd finished with Dalian, they were going to help with other relief efforts. The Rear Admiral would have to leave sometime later this month for mandatory leave on mental health concerns.

Izumo and Liaoning had accompanied the Rear Admiral to Jeju Province.

Initially Izumo had been grateful to be away from the Dalian. Well she'd been one of them, one captain, Lin Jingfei, and suddenly she was JS Izumo.

"How long do you think she's been a ship girl?" 

"I couldn't believe it at first that Chengli's wife is actually one of _them_."

"Do you reckon she actually feels anything for the husband and kid?"

"Maybe she's been a Japanese spy all along."

"I wonder how their relationship works out."

"I thought the ship girls were only invented recently."

"Doesn't that mean their kid wasn't human too?"

Izumo wanted to fade into the canteen bench.

"Wasn't Chengli the one who orchestrated our and the North Korean air strike?"

"Yeah he apparently he just made all our reserves just _disappear_ and reappear for the nuking run."

"I knew he had the ear of the President."

"If he's been married her all along, shouldn't we have gotten secrets out of her?"

The awe, fear and disgust hadn't only been restricted to her.

Jeju province had been so damaged that every terrain feature had been flattened.

When Liaoning had pointed it out, she'd also gotten the paranoia of stepping on the dead.

The island was mostly empty of the living. People knew that there was nothing to be salvaged from Jeju but the dead.

The relief teams constantly photo'd the area. Maybe they could piece together someone. Just tell us which body parts and which streets you found them in?

The smaller bits were just dumped in disposable garbage bags.

You got used to the smell eventually.

After a few days of graveyard duty and rubble clearing, they had moved on to the most chaotic affected area.

Seoul had already been reduced to rubble once before. With many of the remaining buildings to structurally unsound, the ones who had stayed camped out anywhere they could.

The slums had made for easy targets.

All the ports were navigational hazards, so a relief force had already picked a relatively clear part of beach to receive and send boats of the ships anchored at sea.

This little clearing had long been swept clean. But you just had to step a few streets down to find blood.

The clearing had already quickly sprung up into a refugee camp.

Frequently fights broke out in the camp. Just after the Rear Admiral left for leave, a gaunt South Korea woman had hobbled over to give Liaoning something that had turned out to be an IED.

Fortunately everyone around them survived because Liaoning had just used her hundreds of thousands of horsepower to skip the explosive far away onto the water. The old lady had hobbled off as quickly as her twisted legs could, but the UN peacekeepers shot her.

Many areas had been weakened and almost always without warning people were buried and the relief rescuers had to shove the rubble aside as they slowly got to the stricken people.

Frequently those efforts were too late. Especially with those industrial accidents.

Izumo distracted herself by watching the embers carried away by the wind, and thought of cherry blossoms, not of the explosion that was causing all that burning and choking and screams.

At least there had been enough relief supplies.

At least now as a ship girl she could self-medicate herself with liquor and narcotics to treat the symptoms of panic and anxiety.

At least there had been enough drugs to kill the forty plus people who had got burned or inhaled too much to be salvaged at that explosion.

She didn't have to worry about running out, so she didn't have to bother with mathematics as she'd reassuringly cooed and slid down those rations of overdoses down that small pipe she could get to through to the people trapped too far down as the sewerage water rose to drown them.

At least she didn't have to use a silenced pistol to put down that dying mother and those children either like she'd had to do so for many soldiers back during the Dalian attack.

...

Liaoning gazed worriedly over to Izumo who was listing to starboard.

Some of the misguided native soldiers had taken it upon themselves to rid Seoul of the offending Japanese ship girl. They had ambushed her and attacked her as she was treating an elderly man in the first aid tent.

Needless to say the patriots killed the other seventeen occupants in the tent while excitedly yelling out histrionics and derogatory remarks.

Izumo's prosthetic right arm was completely shot this time. She hunched over the bandaged elbow stump.

Once the peacekeepers started arriving, the patriots had thrown some Molotov cocktails and grenades, cheering if anything hit something that moved. That had included turning a family with the father shielding them into a living blaze and obliterating the medic who had jumped on the grenade that would have caught many others in the blast.

Once Liaoning had heard, she rushed back to find the ship girl's only wound was that bleeding stump.

She could only pile on the reassurances on the injured ship girl.

…

"Izumo? Izumo!"

The helicopter destroyer had suddenly laughed, kicked over some debris and then jumped back when foamy red and pink entrails sprayed everywhere. She'd then ripped off her bandages, the vehement action unbalancing and toppling her over.

Now she just lay giggling creepily while lying on her back.

Hell, she was losing her mind.

"Yeah?~"

"Are you okay? Don't rip your bandages off!"

"I am the (hic-) JS Iz (sob-)u-u-u-mo. P-p-pride of the (hic-) Jap-p-p-an-ese (hic-) Navy."

"Izumo?"

"PLEASE STOP IT!" Izumo screamed "WHY DO I HAVE TO HURT THEM!?"

"What?! Izumo please snap out of this!"

"ALL OF THOSE POOR PEOPLE DIED BACK THERE WHILE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!"

"Izumo it wasn't your fault!"

"THEY SAID I DON'T BELONG HERE! THAT MY COUNTRY FLED AND LEFT THEM OUT HERE TO DIE! WHY WEREN'T WE HERE?! WHY ARE WE STILL NOT HERE?!"

Izumo lashed out with both her arms, and there was a snapping of bones as her left one thumped the ground.

"Izumo those were just some sick fucks! You don't have to listen to them!"

"THIS SEA AND PEOPLE WERE SAFE! THEN MY COUNTRY WENT BACK ON ITS PROMISE AND TRIED DEFENDING THAT ACTION! WHERE WERE WE!? TELL ME WHY WE RAN! WHY AREN'T WE- SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!"

…

Of course the most of the slanderous lies and saltshaker held over Japan's actions by the Chinese president had been at least been circulating around as frequently as if they had been the truth.

What the UN had actually found was that Japan did engage the enemy. At multiple times as well.

The Abyssals had wound a path through the Japanese archipelago.

Some of the fleet elements had sailed just north of Hokkaido and then joined up at Busan with fleet elements sailing between Hokkaido and the main island.

A southern prong sailed around Shikoku and past Kyuushu and the main island.

The Abyssals had simply sailed through Japan as if their enemy couldn't stop them. The sheer numbers of the Abyssal warships had meant that as the huge stream of Abyssals sailed past, they could all maintain a solid volume of firepower without even slowing down.

The Japanese Fleet had engaged and lost these battles badly and withdrawn. Japanese high command issued gag orders and kept their failures secret.

Some of the brass whose expectations didn't quite meet reality and whose heads were noticeably far up their anal cavity, had believed that the problem would go away. They'd ordered everyone to maintain appearances, business as usual, and pretend that hundreds of Abyssals vessels hadn't just overrun their defenses.

As the UN inspection teams were stripping their privileges, there were many theories.

One theory had it that the Abyssals had actually been considering themselves beaten at those battles for South Korea earlier in the war, and wanted to finish the job.

The heavy numbers were probably committed because the Abyssals had expected very heavy resistance.

They'd ignored Japan when it was sufficient to pin the Japanese fleet in their ports.

And it was only now, with the optimistic slew of recent victories snatched by humanity, the Abyssals were taking humans as serious opponents.

However, that being said, the Abyssals' numbers, strengths, motives and next moves was an armchair general's guesswork at this point.

…

 _Click._

"Hello."

"Hello, it's Liaoning."

Liaoning had done the only thing to prevent Izumo from coming to more harm.

She'd knocked out Izumo's Combat Information Centre and then towed her all the way back to the doctor who had just healed Izumo.

The doctor was completely bemused at how his previous patient with just some bleeding from her arm, now returned considerably worse off, with bone sticking out of her good arm.

"What's up? Is that Izumo I hear shouting in the background?"

"Sir, I don't believe she'll be ready for the navy review when it comes around?"

"Huh? What was that? Oh, sorry. Uh, she'll just have to be."

Hm? What response was that?

"Admiral, is your leave treating you okay?"

"Oh yes, it's been fine."

"Admiral, where are you?"

"I'm currently attending my daughter's funeral."

"Wait, and you didn't invite Izumo along as well, Admiral?"

"I feel Izumo was actually very sensitive despite how stoic she looks all the time. I didn't want to set her off."

"Admiral, if you wanted to prevent that, you should have definitely brought her along."

"Hm? Why?

"Because Izumo was attacked and abused and has completely lost her mind. We've had to tie her down because she's made multiple attempts to scuttle herself. _Admiral._ "

"Izumo! What?"

"Just get her away from this horrible place!" that was the first time Liaoning had been angry at the Admiral.

"Liaoning quiet down! Otherwise all these peop-"

"Coward! Isn't she your wife!"

(SFX: The Admiral choking on his own spit.) "What? No!"

"Just man the fuck up and take responsibility, Admiral!"

 _SLAM!_

...

 **A/N:** South Korea is only a little banged up, so I just let the characters have some rest.


	11. Chapter 11: Last Ship Standing

Chapter Eleven: Last Ship Standing

 _"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."_

 _"Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack."_

\- Sun Tzu -

…

Even waging war with the enemy for several years, their enemy had been extremely unpredictable, and appeared to conform to very different military thinking from the humans they fought.

Lying on the table were six files. Four in one group, two in the other.

The four bore the images and details of the actions at Operation Unity, Kamchastsky, and Seoul.

The two bore the images and held details of certain post-Operation Unity encounters.

Out of all the theories and rumours running wild, this was probably the worst possible pattern that could have been found.

The Abyssals had shown a preference for seeking all their largest battles, with the possible exception of the first battles of Seoul, with those navies who had dealt the most decisive damage to them.

Russia's most crushing blows in Operation Unity hadn't come from its aircraft, but rather the huge arsenals of missiles on-board their destroyers and Kirov-class battlecruisers.

At Kamchatsky, there had been minimal air presence for the Abyssals. They had obliterated the city with their naval bombardment, starving the defenders to death.

Those early battles of Seoul, the humans had finally won because of military cooperation and combined might. The Chinese and South Koreans had used the proximity of land and sea based air assets and advanced warships from the participating navies to finally bring about the Abyssal's defeat.

The Abyssals had returned to that area with overwhelming offensive air power and an unassailable fleet led by an Aircraft Carrier Demon.

The Abyssals were revisiting their harshest defeats at the hands of those particular navies and imitating and advancing from the human's strategies. They adopted the highest strengths of these navies and paid them back several times.

That was not a pleasant thought.

Any naval serviceman in any nation could list at least a few dozen decisive actions that the United States and Japan. None of these had been repaid for.

But which were the most decisive and damaging actions?

The last two files contained specifics of extremely decisive encounters. The ones which the Abyssals would imitate and improve on and ensure their adversaries paid for.

The first involved the actions of a carrier strike group acting as bait for Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The second involved ship girls.

…

Houshou and a few others had survived until the end of the war or beyond.

They'd seen the spirit of the independent Japanese people broken. They'd seen their cities and ports fire-bombed, mined and finally used as test sites for a new kind of weapon, war, and era was declared over the corpses of the Axis.

They'd been on the losing side of the most destructive conflict fought between humans. Total war, where every citizen, military or not, had been on the frontlines. Everything that had been fought for, was for naught, as their way of life, their laws, hopes, dreams, their martial pride and their technological advances were crushed and controlled by the victors and international stage.

Like many other nations around them, they'd thrown everything into the war effort. Their entire lives, economy, industry, scientific capabilities, culture and that'd still not been enough. And then it had all been vigorously destroyed.

These ship girls were now harried by the queries of other girls who'd worried about so many foreign inspectors and politicians levelling blame upon them, and wondered if they were going to undergo a repeat of history.

Times had changed though. Although the inspection of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces was being painfully thorough, the United Nations didn't want a weakened Japan when humanity stood on the brink of extinction. They wouldn't be looking to disarm them in this moment. However their criticisms were very hurtful nonetheless.

…

"Why do we have to jump through hoops for them?"

Kaga fury and boilers were only prevented from overheating and reaching critical levels because she was eating an appropriately large serving of dinner at Mamiya's.

Today the inspectors had been interrogating the ship girls about their routines, their lives and conditions.

There had been some obvious implication that anything unsatisfactory would just add to the punishments of their superiors.

"Please calm down, Kaga! Not so loud!" Akagi beseeched her, "Please don't insult our guests of honour."

She definitely should not have mentioned honour.

"Honour? _Honour!_ Is there anything particularly admirable to ascribe to these vulture's actions?"

"Please don't compare our superiors to carrion."

Kaga opened her mouth to respond and Akagi shoved some food into the opening before anything condemning was said.

"Mhm! Mmhm?"

"Just count ourselves lucky that they don't treat as harsher for our extermination mission we were assigned."

After that very international incident, these Chinese had taken the opportunity to direct the misfortunes and shortfalls of the defense of the Yellow Sea in Japan's direction.

With the well-disguised media hooked up to the rest of the world, all the actions the Japanese ship girls had taken at Dalian were completely published and updated. In the face of so much publicity, the discretion and secrecy that there assassination mission called for was completely irrelevant.

With all the witnesses and evidence, the Chinese could openly lay out the controversial decisions taken by Japan, and invite the utmost scrutiny and suspicion.

Kaga, Akagi and the rest of the group had expected some sort of punishment for the mission's spectacular failure, but their superiors had been played with just as much as them. The mission had already been doomed from the start.

Kaga felt personally insulted as if she'd been the one playing along to the enemy's tune all along.

She swallowed and carefully weighed her next words.

"Mmhm?!" Akagi food-laden spoon pre-emptively struck before any other damning utterances could be made.

"Kaga!" Akagi's serious tone.

(Swallow.) "Ok fine! I won't talk about those- mhpf!"

Akagi's instincts were well-honed.

…

Ok, so Tatsuta had taken out a dress for Tenryuu, who had _not_ immediately flipped the fuck out?

The sisters had been listening to deeply depressing stuff all day. Someone of DesDiv 6, Ikazuchi, had cited it as fact that there were calls to reduce the size of Japan's ship girl force. Those unco-operating and who had stood against these merciless calls for scrapping had been sacked.

They could apparently expect some ship girls to receive notification and the chance to write their wills.

That had been one of the more cheerful rumours the grapevine spouted daily now.

Tenryuu had had to comfort her crying charges.

At least they could write their wills though.

…

The news that the Admiral was also leaving to go Tokyo, where all the high-ranking officers were now been directed to, had not been received well by the Kongou sisters.

Most of them were crying or sniffling, with the only exception being Kirishima.

Desperately looking for something to distract them from the despondence at least, the idea that had popped just now into her head was genius.

"Kongou-onnesama, you remember that girl who was married to her Admiral and was on the news? The one that stood up to Kaga-san?".

"Yeah?"

"Well that girl was Japanese wasn't she? So her Admiral was probably Japanese too. And she was put on a strong face in front of her enemies to protect her Teitoku."

"Are you saying a wife should act more queenly?"

The topic of romance was having a reviving effect on the Kongou sisters.

"When do you reckon they proposed?"

"Where would our Teitoku want to get married?"

"How about next time we tempt him on the way to-"

The alarms started sounding.

…

"Sir." That was the person manning operations.

The early-detection equipment at the Pearl Harbour military installation picked up and displayed the contacts as a swarm of red dots on the flat-screen monitors.

Admiral Finnigan snapped off rapid fire orders to send out a distress signal, a status report, orders for the base to be put on the highest alert, and a message for reinforcements to make for Pearl as soon as possible.

Most of the ships on hand were casting off right now. Seventeen Arleigh Burkes and three Ticonderogas, the classes that were America's mass-produced and highly successful destroyers and cruisers, comprised the bulk of the readily on hand surface fleet at Pearl.

The highly advanced F-22 Raptor lead the charge off the runways as squadrons of the air force workhorses F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-15's slotted into formation behind them.

"Tracking at least one hundred and seventy escorts and forty capital ships. One of them is an Abyssal-type we've not encountered before."

"Probably one of the demons, eh?"

"Sir," the officer on communications, "We'll get air reinforcements from the patrols in twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes.

Admiral Finnigan was confident that they could at least hold the enemy that long. Most of the Abyssal fleet were primarily fragile escorts and they had enough air presence to overpower the capital ships. Even with the demon, the fleet wouldn't be able to crack open the island's defences in just twenty minutes.

…

Eleven seconds later, the USS Enterprise, CVN-65, a Nimitz-class supercarrier that had been returned to active service the day the Abyssal War was started, saw the lightning parting the clouds in the clear skies.

The swirling dark-coloured vortex was exactly where Pearl Harbour used to be. The USS Enterprise could see that fact even from quite a distance away.


	12. Chapter 11 and a half: National Treasure

Chapter Eleven and a half: National Treasure

 _"_ _The atomic bomb was no 'great decision'. It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of the righteous."_

-Harry Truman-

…

Perhaps, I need to explain and address some of the concerns and questions being raised.

When transcribing the setting of Kancolle into the modern world, throwing in enemies like the Abyssals and crazy weapons that are the Princesses and ship girls, I could have chosen to focus on the cutesy interactions between the ship girls and having inexplicable and random battles that just spontaneously happen and have no build up or consequence for the nations involved.

Or I could focus on how the nations of the world react to being on the brink of annihilation and put in a hole of shit, while reacting to a world on fire.

The Chinese were going to be incongruous with the setting of Kancolle from the very start. They're a nuclear power and don't particularly feel the need to deal in the equipment of WW2 specifics, as the Japanese nostalgically do.

They would be the ones to want to break Japan's technological strange-hold.

In battles of modern nations, military and politics go hand-in-hand, so a battle in Kancolle fanfic should find the reasons and motivations as well as mentioning the specifics of ships.

Where should I start? I suppose with the time.

From what the world says about Liaoning's transfer to China, the world is still largely at peace during her transfer. So the war starts sometime after that.

The time the present events of the story transpire can be guessed at by some of the ships present in the story.

The Chinese Type 055 destroyer that is mentioned leading the reinforcements to Dalian, is a warship that is in development now.

The helicopter destroyer JS Izumo, at some point, receives a complement of adapted jet aircraft along-side her pre-war helicopters.

The carrier Liaoning has recently received refit. Given her status as China's first and only carrier, she would probably be needed more so for training the Chinese Navy as she was for the combat. When she left Dalian port, she did so with a large group of warships from two of three Chinese home fleets.

Unlike some others, the Chinese navy would probably not felt airpower was critical enough to deploy her. Their lack of involvement and experience with the earlier times of the war, along with navy doctrine, would have meant that she was not rushed into battle at the earliest convenience.

Because the Chinese navy cannot base their doctrines and tactics on experience, they look to the way other navies have used carriers.

Obviously the United States view carriers with supreme importance, possessing the largest and most carriers in the world. To them, carriers lend versatility to their formations, and are the lynchpin of their strategy.

The Russians on the other hand, do not attribute that amount of importance to carriers. The Russian fleet has only deemed it necessary to have one modern and active carrier after all.

The Russian navy inherits most of its navy from that of the old Soviets. The Soviets spent considerable resources preparing for a naval clash between modern warships that didn't come. In an engagement with the US and their allies, the quality and quantity of their ships instead of their air planes, was considered vital. The capital ship of choice is the cruiser and the Kirov-class of battlecruisers probably best emphasises this.

Because the Soviets couldn't guarantee to have their carriers go toe-to-toe with other carriers, they emphasise the defensive and support potential of aircraft carriers, even wishfully referring to them as aircraft-carrying cruiser, rather than their offensive striking power.

I feel the Soviet's way of using carriers would have attracted the Chinese because they're primary focus on defensive battles.

The aftermath of Operation Unity, the largest naval offensive by humanity, is an international and logistical effort that initially goes very well. However the tensions of the navies cooperating with each other, especially when things go wrong, would have risen significantly.

The operation eventually ends up how Operation Barbarossa (Red Beard) ended up for the participating armies marching into enemy-held territory. Starts of well, but a gross miscalculation and underestimation of the enemy defeats them.

Operation Unity ends up changing the status quo. Sometime after the offensive, the Japanese approve the development of the ship girl program, but this would have taken time. The Chinese modern navy is pictured as well-trained, well-funded, well-resourced, but let down by poor leadership and inexperience.

In the immediate aftermath of the failed offensive, China ends up stepping up, their first very violent and bloody experience being the conflict, or series of battles to wrest control of the Korean Peninsula.

They've seen the most decisive strategies of other navies before them, and used them to help contribute to their eventual victory.

The Russian's school of thinking had them throwing down enough missiles to blot out the sun. So the Chinese bring along some very powerful missile armament.

And America has proved air power works against the Abyssals in time and time again. And nuclear weaponry as well. So the Chinese bring along their air force to the mix.

After that victory, the Chinese work on those strengths, but notice that they had been able to keep the Abyssals bogged down in the fighting around Seoul. This encourages them to maintain a defensive interest with the Korean Peninsula, modernising the North Koreans and sending battle groups and patrols to the Peninsula.

The battle shows that the United States did not participate. They are shorthanded enough, desperate enough, to sacrifice a carrier strike group to lure in an Abyssal fleet and use Weapons of Mass Destruction to end them.

The Chinese would have observed the effect of nukes on the Abyssals and for the "Yellow Sea Offensive" they base their strategy around delaying and then obliterating the Abyssals that had seemed untouchable.

The strategy that is used by the Chinese is set in motion as soon as they lose their largest warship group around Busan. This dictates the rest of the Chinese strategy.

In the story, there is only the mention of the Type 055 destroyer and its escorts rushing to the aid of Dalian. Which the airpower the Abyssals had, that means that in the Asian region, China can field very powerful conventional forces that may not the case for the other nations in that conflict.

The President of China sees this as an opportunity. To him, there are never any concerns or mentions of the civilian losses from him, but the status of the military and the government in the outcome of the battle must result in is the primary concern in these attacks.

With how easily the battle could have been swayed in their favour, the President of China waits for the most dramatic and best possible timing to destroy the reputation of Japan's military and government as the Japanese blunder with their decisions.

Following the reveal of the Japanese ship girls and their effectiveness, the other Asian nations would have begged for the security that they can provide. Japan ends up the hired mercenary, the navy to go to.

In many kancolle fanfictions, Japan willingly gives the world its technologies. But why should a military give its very best war-winning technology for free?

So the Japanese monopolise the ship girls and the defense of Asia. Resources flow into Japan in exchange for the promise of protection. It is a golden time for Japan, the long-running war with the Abyssals is nothing more than a daily constant and eventually fades from the forefront of minds of many of the higher-ups.

China resents this. They used to be, and feel they should be, in that top position.

With the initial Chinese plan, the reputation of the Japanese military and politics would have already been damaged when they refused to come to their aid when the Abyssals, numbering with almost a hundred aircraft carriers, and who knows how many other capital ships and escorts, instigate the large humanitarian crisis.

But by prolonging the battles and casualties and desperation, the President can see just how much they can damage their political enemy.

By revealing a glimpse of his hand, allowing the Japanese to see China's ship girl program, the President then installs the reporters and backup plans.

The Japanese feel that they can save their reputation if they are the ones to end up saving the day. So they let the other nations deal with the crisis, weakening the Abyssals and themselves. They wait while the casualties, desperation and fear increase for the optimal time to deploy their fleets and ship girls.

And then they receive news that the Chinese have their own ship girl program, the extent and progress of which can only guessed at.

The President of China has risked the sustained efforts of his subordinates and people. He is a man who can stomach watching as assets and citizens are destroyed as he prolongs their destruction and deaths.

So he finds spending the efforts and suffering of others is easily surpassed by his political goals.

His only concern is the standing of the militaries and governments, not the citizens as a whole, after all.

The President believes that the media's attention is a double-edged tool. Opinions of all kinds will result, that it doesn't matter whether the circumstance are objectively good or not. So he wants a scapegoat to direct the bulk of this attention.

The North Koreans, who the Chinese have been equipping and modernising, and the deployment of nuclear weapons, would have been very controversial and criticised decisions. So the situation needed to continue to turn for the worst and for someone can be blamed.

International condemnation for those decisions could be lessened if in the battle those decisions could be seen to be essential. The North Koreans provided most of the intelligence on the positions and strength of the Abyssals all throughout, and contributed immensely to final victory. The nuclear strikes needed to not cause additional damage to the humans- I'm thinking several nukes hitting the water could cause a further disaster or something.

Rear Admiral Chengli initially orders Liaoning and Izumo to be out of the way and hidden, but the President tells him his plans and orders Chengli to send the ship girls to the rescue efforts. Putting the ship girls out in the open, would up the chances of an international incident being recorded. The ship girl program that has been painstakingly built up, will have to be risked. Rear Admiral Chengli directs several news reporters mixed into the crowd of soldiers, and sets up back up plans. Although those backup plans weren't really needed because in front of all of the cameras, the Japanese ship girls attack them.

The weapons that were meant to protect against the Abyssals, being used against humans?

The opinions of the Japanese would have crashed hard.

Things fell into place for the President of China to time all the elements to come together, the continual worsening of the conflict, risking the safety of the people, definitively finishing the conflict with nukes dropped by the Chinese and North Koreans, pinning blame against the Japanese, while addressing the media.

With the Chinese motivations and action not publically known, the negative emotions could only be expressed at the decisions that were publically known.

…

There are consequences and damage to be endured by the people as a result of political and military decisions.

The UN had to declare the Korean Peninsula to be abandoned during the battle due to the catastrophic casualties suffered.

The citizens of Japan are attacked and blamed and caught up in the anger towards their leaders' actions.

I feel out of the nations, when transcribed with Kancolle, the Chinese would have been prepared to gamble, and have their reasons and actions be quite heavy-handed.

Although they don't appear much, the Russians are a hint to the reader of that Cold War, where nations used clandestine tactics and fought through others, to attack the standing of opposing politics.

Liaoning is a character that can tolerate the machinations of her country. She doesn't press when she notices the issues between her superior, Chengli and her comrade, Izumo. She doesn't break even when witnessing the appalling damage to Korea. She never questions her superior until Izumo completely breaks down.

As a character Liaoning is grateful to the Chinese Navy for adopting and fighting for her. She bears with her responsibilities. As should be obvious from knowing the Chinese President, that speech she makes to Izumo, that was apparently borrowed from the President, she puts emphasis on similar meaning words and reinforcing her intent. Her battle with the Abyssal only stresses that she has one flight of Shenyang J-15's, showing her pedantic nature.

Originally the stand-off between the Japanese and Chinese ship girls was going to involve a hostage situation and the death of some of the mains, but I went back and found I'd randomly named an expendable character. Chengli was just going to comment on the female support officer's gruesome death, but the name Lin Jingfei, is like the Chinese John Doe with those common names. So I injected more death scene, and got Izumo.

Izumo really became the story's MC, much like how Kongou kited that position from Fubuki. She was summoned by the Chinese navy, and is the pride of the Japanese fleet. I wanted the components to explosively mix.

How did I picture what a modern Japanese ship girl would be like?

Izumo is a proud, impulsive, impatient, ends-justify-the-means, sort of girl. She thinks ahead to the combat, where the comforts of anger and battle-lusts lie. She fearfully rejects the unfamiliarity and tranquillity of death so that she can deal damage to the Abyssals.

She feels guilt and hurt for her nation. She cannot handle the political machinations of the higher-ups as well as Liaoning does.

Outside of the immediate fighting, she is extremely sensitive and uncomfortable, unsure what to do with all these unwelcome emotions. She can barely handle the tense and desperate Dalian crisis. She completely breaks when she witnesses something many, many times worse.

Obviously most normal people do not speak or act like the ship girls. For example, the Rear Admiral thought processes and emotions seem very conventional and straightforward compared to those warships.

The amount of unnecessary details needed to not detract the reader's attention to the action and also convey the importance of what was mentioned. The intelligence reports for the missing military assets, for example.

While the arrival of the Abyssals may mean that nations have to deal with each other, a world war against the Abyssals doesn't guarantee that they do fight just for the sake of humanity.

…

The reasons and proceedings of events of the story may sound convoluted, but battles are all messy, because people only fight if there is something to gain or for other to lose. If everyone fought the Abyssals only when necessary, all their militaries would be sitting at home.

The Abyssals are the ever-present threat to humanity, but can be used as tools and justifications for many questionable decisions. How and which choices and strategies do these nations choose to adopt? Were the consequences and risks worth it?

When leaders decide to take risks and opportunities, people have to live with those decisions.

…

Where to go from here?

I feel like the unprecedented crisis, really gave the chance to characterise the East, but what now?

If you've stayed this far for the trip, the relief fore would like to thank you.

If you'll be agreeable enough to sail with the rest of UN relief force heading to the crisis in America, look to your left and under the seat of the person in front of you. You'll find a standard-issue med-kit and directly to your right will be your sidearm. Although this really doesn't need saying, I'll warn you now that if you open up both of those items, you'll find there still isn't enough to kill all the grievously wounded.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: These eyes don't lie, dear. They want to hurt you.

 _"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."_

-Leo Tolstoy-

…

Liaoning had expected them simply to be ordered to return to the port in Dalian. However, the Rear Admiral wanted them to meet with him at Busan where he was attending the memorial service to those who had perished there.

The email that bore this new also had more to say. There were definitely not enough resources to summon more ship girls, but the Chinese Navy upgrade their existing ones.

If the two ship girls wanted to, they could be completely refitted with new equipment and capabilities.

The refit devised for Izumo was a relatively straightforward upgrade. Since her technological capacities were already decent enough, the upgrades were aimed at her aircraft handling.

The refit devised for Liaoning was, interesting. In her previous form as a hull of steel, Liaoning had greatly changed from her original configuration.

They were suggesting to have Liaoning _downgraded_ to her original specs. Much of the email's specifics and engineering flew completely over her head. The gist of it was that her internal storage be replaced with weapons and ammunition, and that her flight deck's catapult be replaced by her original ski-jump launch system. She would sacrifice endurance and aircraft handling for raw firepower.

Switching back to the ski-jump launch system, or STOBAR (Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery) was left up to Liaoning's choice. The system took more stress and wear. It would also reduce the initial take-off speeds of her fixed-wing aircraft.

It was not a complete downgrade. There were a range of subtle improvements on offer as well. These same improvements could be applied to her configuration as it was now.

Izumo had recovered her composure after her earlier breakdown. It had only been after lengthy phone calls with the Rear Admiral and several grateful people, before Izumo finally entered the seas of recovery.

Effective immediately, both ship girls were ordered to head for Busan.

There were no intact train lines to speak of, so the two ship girls left Seoul in a ROK armoured personnel carrier K200. The damage to the inner city Daejeon had to be traversed on foot before riding on a K1A1 main battle tank the rest of the way, like the troops of old to the frontlines, resting on the back section of the 120mm turret where the shells are stored.

As many people avoided their transport as the ones who approached for help.

Frequently they stopped for replenishment or to clear the way. Sometimes to help as well. It freaked the troops and the civilians that time the ship girls, careful not to slip on the black ice, cleared an overpass bridge from the road with their bare hands.

A few had hitched a ride with them. Obviously hoping that anywhere was better than where they were right now.

It snowed and got colder. Dangerously, they left the tank's engines running to share the exhaust's heat with the civilians. A few had gotten sick from the fumes. They didn't try that again.

The places they visited varied from affluent to cripplingly impoverished. Not all targets had been equally damaged by the Abyssals. The major city of Daegu and its surrounding towns had organised exceptionally in the face of the attack and had left the battles in good shapes. Now it was a place for hopeful people to head towards.

Before they reached their destination, they had been harassed by several people for not trying their best to help them. The soldiers they were travelling were agitated by this, and one of the people made the mistake of glaring down Izumo in the eyes.

…

Izumo province of feudal Japan was said to hold the entrance to Hell or the land of the dead itself, ventured into and sealed from the mortal realm by the god Izanagi. The sis-con before sis-cons were a thing in mythology, he and his sister birthed much of the deities and nation of Japan.

After his wife dies to childbirth of a deity, he obliterates his offending and defenceless child before visiting the underworld. His sister and wife had become tainted with the food of the underworld and cannot return with him.

He makes the grievous mistake of looking at her and witnessing a monster most terrible. A sin most grave, the wife sends demons to eat a thousand people every day. Every day. Izanagi does the honourable thing, not even refuting that statement. Declaring that a thousand and five hundred would be born every day, in a godly war of attrition paid by some poor peasants that weren't him, because that's how much of a stone cold baller he is.

So yeah, Izumo's eyes are like the hotline to Hell inhabited by everything we dearly reject, lurking inside in the twisted mockery of your loved ones. Incestuous loved ones. Dear kraken. Unless one's into that, in which case, amen?

Liaoning once looked directly into Izumo's eyes, waiting for a counter-attack on Dalian. She had wanted to face her and cheer her up and that was almost the last mistake she made. Ever. She had gotten lost in those deep eyes and ended up completely rambling out loud. She had entered those eyes, been received nicely, and nearly invited something back with her.

One could get wondrously lost in Izumo's eyes, wondering why the flecks seemed to move, were those swirls even natural, is that your dreams and hopes hovering over there, or why the colours apparently kept changing, or most worryingly, why the hell you were still staring into them.

A concentrated and directed gaze of Izumo cuts deep. It vows to eat children.

It had only been Izumo's blinking, the boulder eventually used by Izanagi to seal the entrance into the gates of Hell, that saved the souls of everyone.

If one desired or managed to search beyond those pretty eyes, the turbulent impulses that were present and so terrible to behold to the eye of the beholder, were unspeakable.

After the person's every will, whim and wish possible in the world were wiped away and replaced with the person's darkest fears by the vortex that was Izumo's all-encompassing, hellish, snake-like glare, they had continued to Busan. That had been uneventful.

Oh they were interrupted one time when someone stole some of the foodstuffs. Funnily enough Izumo knew exactly where to look, her eternal vengeance simply ending the criminal. In a humane way of course.

The colonel who received them, Colonel Gangjun, received them warmly. He'd offered them some floury sweet cakes. Liaoning heaved a sigh of relief when she saw those portals of Izumo's crinkle a bit.

They were not going to be consumed by a temporal and spiritual crisis. Yet. They were alive!

With much of Busan levelled to the ground, the service for the lives lost was being held in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery. Previously it would be held in the city hall.

The ship girls had wandered those streets, careful to keep away from too much suffering.

They had all seen too much suffering. Just this once, they wanted to have fun.

Their Chinese government pay check affords them the ability to wave away most receipts. Oh, put the bill under official business. May I have two more of your finest banquet courses again? For each of us if you'd be so kind.

In some run-down park, they swapped stories. Izumo finally told Liaoning what was going on.

"This," she waved the ring in front of her face, "just won't come off."

"Did you try industrial tools?" Liaoning queried, evidently soap and warm water didn't work, "Or more extreme measures?"

"I would remove my wedding hand entirely if I had my other hand working," Izumo's right arm has been killed in action.

The two discuss the practicalities of giving Izumo a mecha arm.

Izumo has been missing her starboard for a while now. It was a fibre-glass prosthetic arm she'd been using, a material used to clad the hulls of civilian vessels. A proper ship should definitely have a mecha arm.

It was while having dinner with their host, his wife and sons, that the two ship girls heard about the attack on Pearl Harbour.

"The conditions of some quarter of million people in North America's west are still unconfirmed.

The evacuations of the citizens of Los Angeles and San Francisco have been hampered by the insufficient nature of America's shelter system and the sheer number of people involved.

Difficulties have been exacerbated by the Abyssals' control of the Panama Canal, which has prevented warships from the east being able to transfer to the western side of North America.

The numbers and safety of the military in the east continues to dwindle with every update we are receiving.

The government has issued a statement urging the citizens of America in the following states of: California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Washington; to evacuate quickly with what they can carry and head to the east if they cannot find a shelter.

In summary, to those who are just tuning in to the news now, every state and county west of Los Vegas is in striking range of the Abyssals. Every state and county west of Las Vegas is in danger."

"Sweet gods of Shinto," Izumo said, her bowl forgotten, "Isn't it too much to leave the entire coast?"

The South Korean family just looked wordlessly at each other as the news continued.

The news keeps the helicopter aerial photographs of the huge traffic jams leaving the major cities for a few moments longer. Then it is replaced by an overhead view of Hawaii.

"It has been declared a likely proposition that the Abyssals are now in possession of the knowledge and resources to field weapons of mass destruction."

Izumo's bowl shattered.

"Satellite imaging has confirmed the complete destruction of the fiftieth state of the United States of America.

It is believed that a substantial amount of the islands are now under water.

One and a half million people are estimated to have died."

Izumo's chopsticks are being turned to wood mulch in her shaking fist.

"The Abyssals' unprecedented damage was due to the unsuspected nature of the weapons they possess and the inadequate time to abandon the island.

The weapons have scattered the people and islands many called home.

During these violent times, Hawaii became the port to call for when many needed assistance and refuge.

It was a safe harbour that many warships launched and docked, when they conducted countless essential missions into the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

We will have a small intermission as we gather more updates."

One of the sons leaned over, trying not to disturb the kotatsu too much. Izumo shook of the helping hand.

"Why did they attack the Americas all of a sudden," Izumo asked, "When they attacked us here?"

"For the change in direction of the attacks," the colonel stated confidently, "We knew after Operation Unity that the Abyssals could sustain a defense across multiple locations against multiple navies."

"So you think they could be just as capable on the offense," Izumo wondered when they would ever be able to predict this enemy.

"They strike first, than prevent reinforcements from coming in," said Ji-hu, the other son, "and they have weapons to wipe out Mexico. Of course they are being cautious and evacuating."

The colonel swelled proudly at the strategic analysis of his son.

"They may consider us so weak here in Asia," said the colonel, "that they would rather use those weapons against juicier targets."

None of these speculations were comforting. Izumo's shoulders drooped.

"And what to do when they do use them here," the damage those weapons could inflict had been demonstrated, "All of Asia's major cities lie on the coast."

"America's not out of the fight yet," Ji-hu pointed out, "they will attack targets until they deem them worthless."

"Look at Kamchatsky," the Colonel drew her attention, "ever since they've gone out of each other's way, neither of them has fucked with the other."

"No swearing!" the wife sternly cuts into the excitement.

There's a loud bang from the TV that attracts their attention. It's only that ad where the South Korean drinks company talks about their products containing military grade materials that can be recycled. The girl and some thought bubbles, defiantly refuse to recycle, and the slamming of the bin lid can is what made that sound.

"So you don't think they'll attack here again?" Liaoning has stayed silent for this time, wanting Izumo to vent her feelings first.

"No."

Now that ad plays where the guy says the lines "Education is the greatest equaliser. But military officership education is the greatest of the GREATEST! Sign up now!". It's not bad that ad, take it from me.

"And now we come back to update you on the breaking news happening right here in America.

But first, let's cut to the weather."

…

"I know that the naming convention of Abyssal ships follow a Japanese poem," the person the voice belonged to tried to make the situation lighter, "but what do we do if they're not ships?"

…

"Just tell me if they'll make it to America."

The recipient of the question fiddled fastidiously at their bloodied surgical tools.

"Probably not."

…

"We have just received news that coastal cities and towns in Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico have experienced huge energy and geographical anomalies.

To those who have survived the attacks are to make their way to safety."

After-Action Report/ After-combat Evaluation: Okiniwa, JGSDF.

 _"What are these things?_

 _I don't mind having to fire back at little zipping Abyssal fliers or even taking battleship fire. But what the hell?_

 _Scratch that. It doesn't really matter now. What does matter, is that we just need to get every person off these islands right now._

 _They came in from the seas. They came from some of the 'people' as well._

 _Sshh!_

 _(heavy and lumbering footfalls get louder than quieter.)_

 _They could be described as people wearing Abyssals for hats. Or heads I suppose."_

 _(recording log clicks off)_

 _(clicks on again)_

 _"It's a struggle to actually find sustenance left for the troops without fighting these things._

 _We saw what happened to the last group that challenged them. The got hit and their blood and bones and organs were just scattered everywhere around. The buildings in the port still have the entrails visible from here._

 _I don't know how they managed to attack from the crowds of people around the ports anyway. It was a massacre._

 _(clicks off.)_

 _(log ends.)_


	14. Chapter 13: Two for Flinching

Chapter Thirteen: Two for Flinching

 _"In a life and death struggle, we cannot afford to leave our destinies in the hands of failures."_

-Clement Attlee-

…

Izumo woke up to the screams of people, payloads and jet-propelled aircraft.

She grabbed for the bow and quiver, with the arm she also did not have. Unbalanced, she then fell out of the futon, slumped and defeated.

Liaoning was more coordinated about her air defense. She grabbed her bow and quiver with the limbs she still had. She then rushed outside.

As it turned out, some USMC personnel, the United States Marine Corps or Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, were heading directly back to their home to fight rather than stay in Australia.

While heading back they had also had the chance to receive some supplies.

The pilots, or the zoomies, wing nuts, air heads, flyboys, et cetera, did not appreciate finding out that Busan lacked functional runways only after they had arrived. So they carpet bombed the general target area with the supplies.

Their host family and the two ship girls opened up the boxes while a crowd formed wondering what had just gone on.

The first impressive find was the new arm they had sent for Izumo.

The new arm was stronger and allowed for a greater degree of movement. The arm was controlled by the algorithms of retinal scanners, which predicted what she actions she would want to take by examining her eye movements. Retinal scanners? Izumo's eyes? Not an enviable job.

Izumo was nervous about new contraptions this strange though. She recalled being told about automated weapon systems that had jousted with passing birds, duelled with friendlies, assaulted hostile waves, declared war on the ocean, and anything but not actually function as advertised.

After testing the arm's new capabilities, it turned out that it was able to keep up with all the stunts that Izumo wanted to pull and was strong and responsive enough to do so.

She also received a new bow with a few little attachments and design changes.

Liaoning pulled up her equipment while Izumo, clad with a spiffing new headset and arm, loosed practice arrows down the middle of her previously loosed arrows.

Liaoning had unearthed an unfamiliar and unwieldy weapon.

It turned out to be a representation of her older launch systems. It was a repeating crossbow, meant to be held and fired from the hip. The mechanism performed all the actions of resetting the string, loading the next bolt, and then firing by pulling back on its handle.

This could be fired with one hand. So in addition to her crossbow and CIWS she could use another weapon with her other hand. Maximise all forward firepower.

The repeating crossbow had poorer accuracy and bolt launch speed, but Liaoning looked down upon the submachine guns, pistols and grenades she could equip allayed her doubts.

…

The alarm had been sounded. The southern Japanese islands of Okinawa had seen the wrath of a few dozen Abyssal warships descend upon them.

Out of an original group of two hundred and thirty vessels, coastal batteries of missiles and artillery had thinned the relentless charge. Japanese navy patrols had backed away as they pummelled the Abyssals with impunity with long-range weaponry. Still they came.

"If anyone asks," normally captains weren't in charge of the entire defense of provinces, but everyone with a higher paygrade was due for questioning, "Deny anything that happened here."

The panic that would ensue if people living inland discovered that Abyssals could go on land.

It would be far better for security in the long-term.

"Nago in the northern expanses of the main island is serving as the fall back point. Major General Hara is overseeing the rendezvous point sir."

Thankfully the Ground Force still had all their high-ranked officers to put into this conflict.

"What is the status on the deployment of ship girls?" asked captain Ito.

"The United Nations have let them go for this emergency. Ship girls from Sasebo, Kure and Yokosuka districts are already underway."

Japan's defense was primarily divided into districts being named after the major base that served them.

"Any update on numbers?"

…

It was a grandiose manoeuvre to put entire wars to shame.

Flights of helicopters roared past, upsetting the grass roots and snow as they charged thunderously towards their targets.

Air groups accelerated towards each other. Turn-fighting, dog-fighting, of the mad brawl variety, ensued as the combatants lined up for the best attacks and evasions at knife-close range.

"Baka~," Izumo looked down at her downed comrade, "Need a hand, Liao-san?~"

The crossbow had snapped, with the string whipping Liaoning and tossing her to the ground.

She looked at the end of Izumo's new hand which Izumo had unattached and offered with the other.

"You're seriously going to use that joke?"

…

Liaoning and Izumo hadn't been training like that for a long time.

After a day of honing combat skills, DC drills and mock air battles, Izumo crashed into bed.

Liaoning stayed up a bit using her room's TV to listen to the news.

"I believe the Chinese people should not let the current actions and immediate status of the Abyssals' strength detract from what we always must and always do.

All battles and situations reshape everything but our priorities. Luck changes hands repeatedly in war.

Worrying endlessly did not solve what needed doing in the past. It won't help what we must do now.

I believe the saying goes that if you flinch once you are punched, you get another punch for flinching.

We must rise above this challenge. That never changes."

Good old trusty President.

…

"Please don't worry, nano desu," Inazuma finally managed to say, "Everyone will start wondering where we've sailed off to and come looking."

The firing of a welder and the screams of the submarine ship girl, Iku, quickly disabused them of this notion. In general parlance, those bloodcurdling screams from above them had effectively countered what was just stated.

A handful of ship girls were being kept in a basement with only the illumination of a sole barren light bulb hanging down from the cobwebbed rafters. After their first attempt to escape, they had their hands shackled behind their backs and been attached neck-to-wall with heavy metal collars.

Samidare had completely fainted after screaming at the sight of rats for a few minutes.

The only ones left awake were Inazuma and Ikazuchi. Both of them had listened to the torturing of the girls who had been taken before them for hours.

Silence reigned.

The trapdoor opened. The light flooded in, awakening Yuubari and the others.

The pretty woman who walked down the stairs wore a military uniform. The smile she had would have convinced sharks they were meals.

"One of you is next. Please pick again.".

…

The two ship girls waved goodbye to their host family and then set off to the docks.

"I sure hope they weren't serious when they suggested for me to go speak at my funeral," Liaoning frowned, "I know I'll have to pay my respects to my other hull sometime later though."

Xian Chengli, Boris Corschkov and Kirov received the two ship girls at the rendezvous point.

"Izumo and Liaoning, I would like you to introduce you to Boris Corschkov and Kirov.

Boris and Kirov, likewise to Izumo and Liaoning."

The port was a hive of activity.

Tugboats guided warships, barges, ferries and all manner of ships past navigational hazards and debris. Builders and engineers attempted swarmed over and around fallen structures they attempted to resurrect.

Liaoning pointed out to two blocky ships.

"Isn't that the Independence-class corvette?" Liaoning said.

"That is actually its bigger brother, the Freedom-class," Boris clarified, "It's a littoral combat ship by the way."

"And over there is the M80 Stiletto," said Xian, noting Izumo looking at the smaller multi-hulled ships, "class name still pending. I think."

"Can they even handle the journey over the Pacific?" asked Liaoning, "I thought they only operated near coastlines and in shallow waters."

"If they hug the coastlines of Russia and Alaska," Xian explained, "They can survive that trip."

"The M80 stiletto can run near sixty knots and the Freedom at fifty knots. They're the fastest way to travel in style."

"Also," Boris added, "The M80 is fully coated in stealth composite panels and close to invisible on radar."

"So, what happens when they meet Abyssals on the way?" Izumo noted very few weapon mounts and tubes on the ships.

"Run like hell. And hide if they can."

"And that's our ride over there," Xian pointed out the Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk that was taking off from the Freedom class littoral combat ship, "It will take you all the way to Japan."

So the two ship girls were going to Japan to attend the military reviews and inspections.

"When are you actually going to reveal that China has a ship girl program?" said Liaoning, "The inspectors and media are eventually going to get around to questioning our origins."

"Yeah!" Izumo was sure that they would be found out sooner rather than later, "They're going to ask why we're so different from the others and why we were in China."

"They're already ripping apart Japan's ship girl program as it is," said Liaoning, "They're going to ask why we were not following the orders from the Japanese."

"The President of China knows the secrecy of our program is very close to being compromised," they had only made the temporary solution of saying the two ship girls were Japanese, "He's told me that he had all these things he's needed doing for the last few weeks. Everyone was hammering him for answers to why the Chinese were secretly arming the North Koreans and planned to use weapons of mass destruction. That being said, he's probably going to address the public when confidence in ship girls is restored."

"And how is the public going to be convinced that we aren't cunning, opportunistic and cowardly predators," Izumo remembered everything the media was saying about Japan and its military. She also experienced a feeling of dread when politics was involved.

"It's already been shown that our weapons of mass destruction have been trumped by the Abyssals," Xian hoped the two girls had heard the news and was reassured when the two girls seemed to know, "So we're going to finish this business with ship girls."

…

"Were those friends, Kirov," the sickly girl sniffled as her comrade climbed through the hatchway. Kirov turned around and locked the pressure wheel before answering.

"Yes they were. Please get comfortable." Kirov snapped on her scrubs, goggles and mask.

"Not another operation," the girl wearily complained, "I can function easily enough."

"With that sniffling I'll guess your reactor's leaking again."

…

"FIRE!"

The Abyssals ranged from destroyer that looked like black rocks and animals merged with teeth, to the freakishly humanoid and twisted monstrosities of their capital ships, There was a large disparity between different Abyssal types and what they brought to battle.

The Japanese Type 90 tank fires a licensed version of the 4.5 ton, 120mm cannon that is also present on the M1 Abrams, Leopard 2, and K1 main battle tanks. It can fire an 8.4 kilogram fin-stabilised penetrator sabot projectile of dense tungsten and weight-efficient aluminium at a velocity at 1,750 metres a second or 6,300 kilometres an hour. This can vaporise more than half a metre of steel on impact. The auto-loader and target acquisition takes around six seconds to fire again.

These shells did no physical damage to the human-sized Abyssal as it slowly staggered over the bridge towards them.

"Command tank to soldiers. Back up slowly."

The quartet of tanks parked near Kawahira Hospital, Naha city had easily mowed down the single Abyssal's friends. These Abyssals had roamed freely around the capital of Okinawa slaughtering a large portion of the city's three hundred thousand residents.

The tank squadron had standing orders not to damage the bridges or buildings until everyone civilian in the city was gone or dead.

The next two tank shots triggered the hexagonal patterned shielding that bubble-wrapped the Abyssal. Smoke billowed from the heat of the impacts, but like the last shells, they did no noticeable damage to the Abyssal.

The Abyssal seemed to falter slightly though. The next tank shot activated the shielding. The shields flickered slightly, than gaps widened in the shimmering matrices of protection. This time out of the clouds of smoke, the Self-Defense Force soldiers could see burns and blood.

The next shot blast through the weakened shields, that briefly flashed, and hit the Abyssal in the torso.

The Abyssal was ripped in half. The soldiers saw the disproportionate armoured head and rams had survived. But the human-looking bits had been replaced by gore and innards.

Not all the Abyssals were this tough, but some could take huge amounts of punishment. Sometimes they could dish it out too.

…

The people at Isagawa Park had gathered from all corners of the island. Some had lost people to the Abyssal aircraft in the skies. Some had lost others at the bombardment from the Abyssal warships in the seas. Most had lost loved ones to the Abyssals that rampaged on land. Nonetheless, many thousands of evacuees had made it, waiting for the arrival of ships to carry them the rest of the way to safety.

Major General Hara spoke to one of her aides.

"You're no fun. Let me see the corpses before I return backstage."

"There is going to be danger here soon. We should clear out all the humans while we can."

"Do we have to?" Major General Hara prettily pouted.

"We have other things to do,

Southern Demon."


	15. Chapter 14: The A Team

Chapter Fourteen: The A Team

 _"Organized force alone enables the quiet and the weak to go about their business and to sleep securely in their beds, safe from the violent without or within."_

-Alfred Thayer Mahan-

…

Usually ships don't get the opportunity to fly.

"This is Kure Naval Base Control tower to VIP transport. Your parking spot has just been freed up by some Navy Seals. You copy?"

"Copied that, Control Tower. Moving to designated area. Call-sign Busker, out."

Izumo gazed out of the helicopter's side door and sighed.

"Looks like onee-chan is going to battle again."

JS Kaga, another Izumo-class destroyer, was heading at full speed to Okinawa. Around her, the wakes of several ships who hadn't already responded to the crisis, were clearly visible.

Liaoning didn't know what emotions she would have had in this form. Her own sister had already died when both were still in their steel forms.

The other ship in Liaoning's class was Admiral Kuznetsov, the only carrier the current Russian navy had retained. There had been no immediate plans to replace her loss.

"Ugly business when the enemy chooses to hide in and behind the people we are sworn to protect," the co-pilot remarked, "I wonder where the Abyssals learnt that particular trick."

"Using collateral damage to deter your opponent," replied the pilot, "is a very instinctive tactic I think."

Liaoning recalled that the Qin people used to do this when they wanted to make their enemies waver and hesitate. As the Qin took over more villages and towns, they would make the citizens, military or not, walk in the front as they sieged cities. The enemies of the Qin faltered when they were asked to shoot their own. The Qin used that opportunity to get in close and shank their enemies. Their bronze armours and swords being superior to the leather armour and soft iron weapons that were popular at the time.

The pilot spoke to their passengers behind them.

"You two can continue to the main complex. Rear Admiral, you'll have to flash your clearance in front of the quartermaster's office."

As the helicopter had pulled away from Korea, the Rear Admiral had silently saluted the fallen. The gesture had been taken up the two girls as well. Afterwards the co-pilot observed aloud that he could still see all the smoke from up here.

"Roger that. Thank you."

…

Yuubari had elected herself to be the next victim. She had stood up before the others could have the chance for discussion.

"I'll go."

The captive ship girls had already seen their number reduced as the pretty woman had visited them again and again. The intervals could last between half an hour and many hours.

The pretty woman in the military uniform of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force smiled as the rest of the ship girls sobbed. The time for defiance and anger had long passed.

This time though, the woman was covered from head-to-toe in blood.

"My, oh my~ If I only I had known how dirty I would become after they told me to go wild," the pretty woman ran her hands over the blood and shook them, "Would you prefer it slow or fast?"

Yuubari could barely keep her composure and façade as she said, "Slow."

"Are you sure of that choice~? Your friends will have to wait for their turn anyway~ I wouldn't want you to be disillusioned into thinking that you'll delay their treatment in time for someone to help you."

Yuubari confirmed her decision calmly and collectedly. Inside she was already screaming in anticipation of the pain.

Tenryuu had taken the longest. During it, Tenryuu's screams had shattered her voice, leaving only hoarse screeches. Afterwards, there had only been nothing.

…

The two ship girls and their superior officer had expected to see many specimens of Japan's ship girl program.

But it seemed many of them had left to the conflict.

Rear Admiral Chengli turned around.

"Stick to one story, okay?"

They saluted. Then their superior went off to find someone in charge.

"I suppose we meet the interrogators now," Izumo had been sighing a lot since they had left Korea.

"Do we just stand here?" Liaoning's hair was blowing everywhere as their transport lifted off again to get refuelled.

Liaoning was worried that Izumo might lose her composure now that she was back in her homeland.

They weren't on holiday after all.

…

The pretty woman cradled Yuubari's face and prodded her eye.

"I think we'll start with your radar first."

"Please stop with your scare tactics," Yuubari was praying that someone would come to save who was left, "It is unsightly."

The pretty woman led Yuubari out of the basement.

"We've all sworn an oath," said the woman.

They climbed up the stairs and out of the wooden shack that was the inconspicuous entrance to the prison.

"I want you to see."

…

"So you continue to delude yourself into thinking that we'll believe that?"

Officer Jerry Schtoks noted that the girl on the metal folding chair in the barebones interrogation room was sweating under the questions.

"I can only tell you what I know," the girl tried to maintain eye contact with him and failed.

"Intelligence agencies from around the world have assembled here to scrape the truth out of this country's disastrous involvement with the invasions last month," Jerry Schtoks was from Germany and its foreign service, "We have the right to completely overturn every single grain of sand in this country."

"I'm well aware of this," the girl's gaze fixed on the reflective shades he was wearing.

"Then tell me why you were in China again," Schtoks didn't believe the crucial bits of her story added up at all.

"We were under the supervision of the People's Liberation Army Navy," the girl stared off to the left and up. Since she is right-handed, she is accessing the portion of the brain responsible for the imagination.

"Why are you lying? What do you have to hide?" maybe the girl was making up her story as she went along.

"I am being interrogated right now," said the girl, "Hiding anything would be useless."

"Tell me why we didn't discover any documents pertaining to your summoning or the acquisition by the Chinese Navy." Was there anything the girl said that wasn't a blatant lie?

"It was a rushed job" this girl told so many lies and half-truths that Jerry and the team behind the room's one-sided mirrors had long given up on the idea they would ever get the truth out of her.

"Why aren't you cooperating with us?" demanded Jerry. The girl took her hands from their positions on her chair and placed them on the table between them.

"You accusations are baseless." Her left hand is trembling. Her other prosthetic is still.

"I think we're done here," Jerry and the team had enough of this tedious exercise, "I think I'll issue you a warning. We get to decide what happens when the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces are reorganised.

The girl's face flinches a bit. It had only taken Schtoks two minutes to find out how anxious she was. Not for herself, but for her people.

Jerry sighed. Now that this process had reached its conclusion, he placed his hand on her quivering shoulders and let his charades drop. He apologised as the girl all but fled the room.

…

Yuubari noted many Japanese soldiers were rounding up terrified civilians at gunpoint.

Japanese soldiers were also on the roofs and balconies, keeping watch over the city.

Columns of tanks and self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft pieces rumbled down the streets.

Any other day this would have been seen as protecting the citizens of Japan.

A small girl was refusing to be separated from one of the young women being shepherded up to the harbour. The soldiers were getting very agitated and eventually one of them lost patience.

Yuubari wasn't being held by her chaperone and found herself running towards the commotion.

"You little shit!"

The soldier raised his rifle.

"Please stop it!" Yuubari took the blow as the rifle came smashing down.

The rifle caught her in the shoulder. The soldier simply raised his rifle again and butted her in the cheek.

The other soldiers kicked her when she fell down. She hoped that this didn't cause trouble for anyone else.

"Let them go."

Her bloody chaperone only made her presence known now.

"General?"

"Let the family go."

"Yes ma'am."

The soldiers let the girl, woman and another very old man go. They could only thank her briefly before they hurried away.

The lady in charge and Yuubari watched them go. Then she turned to Yuubari, the blood sliding off her.

"Interesting," was all she said.

…

Liaoning had stuck to the story and when the navigational hazards threw her off-course, she defiantly steered towards safer territorial waters.

Liaoning had stuck to the facts and supposed truths. The two girls had been summoned in Japan. They received unwritten orders to go to China. They had participated in the battle against specific orders issued from Japanese high command. They could participate in the defense because they were nominally in the care of the Chinese. The Japanese kept their presence on a strictly need-to-know basis.

Liaoning looked at her thoroughly dejected friend. Apparently Izumo's interrogation had broken the Rear Admiral's worst expectations.

The Rear Admiral had asked around the base for the situation at Okinawa.

The Japanese and United States were reluctant to storm the island because the Abyssals had taken many of the islands' residents as hostage. Precision strikes would still hit people if they targeted key locations.

Although this was principally happening in Nago, the major port city in the northern part of the island, it was happening elsewhere too.

The ease at which things had gone from the bad to completely FUBAR (Fucked up beyond all/any recognition) had been another blow to the people tasked with holding the sword of Japan.

The ground forces in Naha, the Okinawa prefecture capital, had been confirmed by UAV's to have been wiped out. Not a whisper was heard about this until too late. Not even from the recon teams.

Liaoning and Izumo had their orders to make as many acquaintances and friends from the ship girls at the base. In all likelihood, Izumo would have to be returned to Japan. Even if she had been struck from the Japanese naval register years ago.

They had only found a skeleton crew left at Kure Naval base. Even the support staff and rear officers were not about.

The two had been looking at the impressive facilities that were used for mass ship girl deployments when a ship girl named Akashi had bumped into them. Finally some ship girl to talk to.

Akashi had told them that if they intended to meet with ship girls, they should head to the canteen or Mamiya's café. Most were in their dormitories and refused to be disturbed.

So the two ship girls had been sitting around in the café, talking with a supply ship girl, Irako, about life in Japan when an officer had summoned all three for an emergency mission briefing.

…

"Do you know why you're all the way here and not at the clinic?" whispered the woman eerily.

The woman had guided Yuubari down alleyways until they were out of sight.

"I have no idea."

The bloodied woman then pressed Yuubari against the surrounding brick walls.

"I welcome you…" the woman was hesitant, "with open arms…"

Yuubari did not expect this at all. The woman continued as she lay against Yuubari.

"This... can't be... for me to..."

No way. The eyes of an Abyssal should hold the promise of imminent violence, or disdain for humans.

…

"And this installation here is where we believe they are moving the missiles," Admiral Goto, the commanding officer of the entire Kure naval district tapped the map fixed to the chalkboard with his retractable pointer.

The amphitheatre for mission briefings held the majority of the unusually small amount of ship girls left at the Kure base.

The navy was pulling out everything they had. What was going on in Okinawa was a catastrophe.

The ship girls were expected to pull their weight when the citizens of Japan were on the front lines. Whether it was sailing with the other brave sailors and officers into battle or protecting unarmed freighters hurrying to safety.

But how to protect the people already in the enemy's grasp?

"Ground forces are inserting for a covert strike against enemy-held locations," normally the ship girls would be chattering away with each other, normally, "These troops include US Navy Seals, Delta Force, Marines, Australia's Special Air Service and other special forces by the Joint Special Operations Command.

There are lakes in Okinawa. The enemy will not expect ship girls to be there. Volunteers are being requested to distract the enemy.

Any questions?"

"Sir," Nagato raised her hand and stood, "are those viable options to be using lakes to stage distractions for Abyssal forces?"

"The likelihood of survival is slim for the volunteers," Goto added stiffly, "I personally believe that the risks are too huge and success too low."

"Are there any other ways for ship girls to be of any use to these troops?" asked Nagato.

"Stay as close to the island as possible from the sea and get ready to move in guns blazing," said Goto, "Unless you want to ditch your ship armaments so that you can keep up with the ground pounders."

Nagato sat down and Yamato stood up.

"I've heard reports that they're using civilians as meat shields," Yamato fidgeted with her parasol, "what will happen when the special forces begin their covert strikes?"

"We can only remove as many of the enemy as we can from the island and direct the hostages away," said Goto, now taking his cap and holding it tightly, "Then we land as many troops and send as many assets in."

"Is this plan the only alternative that offers the fewest casualties?"

"We have very little idea because of the unprecedented circumstances we are in."

Yamato sat back down and Murakumo took her turn.

"It seems that the Abyssals are doing lots of things that we are unsuspected. Including the attacks in Korea and America."

Admiral Goto had been in this war from the very start. The last few weeks had shaken the very nature of the war they thought they had been fighting.

He looked at Murakumo.

"That is not the only thing they have done," Goto readied himself for the chaos,

"They have also taken some of our missing ship girls."


	16. Mostly non-Canon 1: Happy New Year

Mostly non-Canon 1: Happy New Year

" _Australia and New Zealand are now threatened by the might of the Imperial Japanese forces, and both of them should know that any resistance is futile."_

-Hideki Tojo-

…

"Are you sure we should be doing this, nano desu?" Inazuma nervously uttered.

"Relax," reassured Tenryuu, "We always steam into battle with the full company of explosives as ballasts anyway."

"That's not what she's talking about," said Hibiki.

"What if we are discovered?" Ikazuchi piped up.

"Blame it on the festive spirit of course," suggested Tatsuta.

"It's not like the military inspectors were going to let us pull out decorations," Yuubari remarked.

"But are we really going to sail up to Korea under their noses?" Akatsuki asked, "The white-haired lady will know right away."

"We have to fight for the ones who can't fight," added Iku cheerfully, "We have to celebrate for the ones who can't."

"But still, fireworks are a bit…" Ikazuchi trailed off.

"Unlady-like?" chimed in Akatsuki.

"Khorosho," agreed Hibiki.

"Oh stop it guys," said Tenryuu, "The others won't look for us."

…

"The Defense Department has projected their predictions of what a Zumwalt ship girl would be like."

"And?"

"They refuse to consider her on the list of initial candidates."

The Zumwalt-class destroyer had experienced many comments and criticisms of their cost and seemingly radical departure from conventional ship design.

It seemed even now there would be a few misgivings. But surely these warships had dispelled many of the fears and doubts when they'd fought the Abyssals. Why the naming department insisted on calling them destroyers when they were clearly cruisers. (Sigh). They were that big and expensive anyway.

"What is it _this_ time?"

"Well, it is a matter of who we assigned to USS Zumwalt."

Surely not.

"Is it the fact that we assigned captain James A. Kirk to her?"

"It is suspected that USS Zumwalt will be a raving fangirl of the Star Trek franchise."

Called it.

"Order the people who are making that list to deal with it. Even if she suggests that we 'Focus all fire on the Borg-byssal Cube'."

…

Shibuya Crossing wasn't holding the countdown for the New Year. Again.

Well it couldn't be expected with the dilemma at Okinawa after all.

The woman watched the mass of humanity standing around, disappointed that the delights of Shinjuku district seemed to have rarely showed itself during the entire war.

The foreign woman twirled a white strand of hair around her fingertip. She hoped that the situation for the survivors in Nago would turn out for the better.

…

When any one arrives in Australia there are two very key things not to do. Never criticise the state of the cricket. Or act offended at the sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Bridge may be a pig-ugly, pig-iron monstrosity. But just don't say that out loud.

It might look dull most of the days of the year.

But today it coloured the sky with multi-coloured waterfalls of burning magnesium. It erupted with the joys and vigour of the last year.

Yet these were dark times.

The people lined up on the banks of Sydney Cove were bitter sweetly glad they could still celebrate while many other countries chose not to. A few people still had their health, their prosperity, their plenty.

They just wished they could say the same for many, many others.

…

Kirov wheeled her patient to the top of a hill at Hallyeohaesang national park.

They had never expected fireworks to go off in front of the harbours of Busan. The South Korean authorities had announced the country was still in the midst of national mourning. There had been no preparations visible.

But obviously people were still celebrating.

"Look Kirov," the girl in the wheelchair showed improvement already.

"I see. I see."

They were silent as they observed the fireworks reaching for the ends of the skies.

The fireworks never reached their goals. But they combusted with happiness anyway.

"Kirov?" the girl shifted the blanket on her lap.

"What is it comrade?"

"Oh come on Kirov," the girl said with exasperation.

…

"Just use my name, Severstal, already."


	17. Chapter 15: Faraway Dawn

Chapter Fifteen: Faraway Dawn

 _"A gigantic fleet has amassed in Pearl Harbour. This fleet will be utterly crushed with one blow at the very beginning of hostilities. Heaven will bear witness to the righteousness of our struggle."_

-Seiichi Ito-

….

The survivors left in their prison could not hear a sound from above them.

Yuubari had asked for her torturer to be slow.

The silence could only mean that Yuubari was not able to make noise anymore, or that she was that heavily damaged.

"Let this end," begged Ikazuchi.

"We need to find a way out of here, nano desu," suggested Inazuma.

Like that hadn't failed miserably.

"We could overpower her when she opens the door again."

Normally a ship girl would have plenty of strength to break their restraints. But they were weakened by being without their rigging and the Abyssals had somehow reduced many of their abilities.

They could only wait like animals in an abattoir.

…

Mustu and Nagato were the only ones that noticed the double doors from the back of the amphitheatre open up for a second time.

Kirov gazed around the crowd of ship girls now dissolving into a frenzy of fear. She spotted the noticeably tall Chinese girl and led her comrade to the beacon through the uncontrollable ranks of ship girls.

After much pushing and shoving, they arrived at the long table where Liaoning and Izumo were sitting.

"Did we miss anything important?" asked the girl that Kirov had grasped by the hand as she was guided amongst the hysterical masses of ship girls.

"The part where the United States are pushing for special forces to assault Okinawa," said Izumo, And the part where they said that the Abyssals are taking ship girls to unknown locations."

"Wow."

"And you are?" Liaoning knew Kirov but not this newcomer. The newcomer drew herself to her full height, that was not inconsiderable when not compared to the other three girls, and saluted smartly.

"TK-20 Severstal, Projekt 941 Akula-class ballistic submarine."

If Izumo recalled correctly, Severstal had been serving in the Baltic Sea when it had responded to the distress calls of the Swedish Navy. Severstal had been unauthorised to use any of her more devastating armament until all friendly ships could evacuate.

Then Severstal had found itself in a fight with several enemy submarines and destroyers. Those were the early days, before the Japanese assigned a handful of ship girls in Germany and Italy. Almost the entirety of Western Europe had been under constant invasion by Abyssals coming in from their bases of the Atlantic. One of her pressurised nuclear reactors failed. She had been an old ship anyway. And poorly maintained as well.

"What are both of you doing here?" Liaoning knew that these two ship girls would have been unknown to the wider world. Unlike Liaoning and Izumo who had been filmed live.

"Your President just revealed that China does indeed have a ship girl program," answered Kirov, "but he claimed it was only after recently through looking at the reports of the United Nation inquiry into Japan."

Izumo's head and shoulders slumped to the table as soon as politics were mentioned.

"I sure hope that bastard gets hell for it."

"Not likely," countered Kirov, "I think the United Nations, media and South Korea in particular are currently too occupied by events in America and Japan."

Izumo just drooped even lower.

"Attention everyone!" yelled Goto over the din, "Please listen to the rest that needs to be said!"

Not a chance. Even Nagato refused to try and cut through the case. Or continue the briefing.

Kirov hadn't reacted that much to the news she had received second-hand. She stood up and with her figure cutting an imposing figure with the Flag of Japan dominating the wall above her.

"Silence before the Admiral."

Her composed words struck fear into the hearts of the ship girls. It was menacing enough that some of the ship girls instinctively evaded and dodged, expecting to come under fire.

Admiral Goto took advantage of the room which had audibly quietened, even if a few were still shrieking. That was much better.

"We have confirmed that Destroyer Division Six headed by Yuubari did not report to any meals from last night," with the ship girls confined onto the base, they could only eat on-site, "analysis of the footage taken of the island puts their location…here…"

He pointed his retractable pointer to Chura Umi Clinic at Nago.

"Still unknown on the whereabouts of the others." They'd somehow lost ship girls. Admiral Goto blamed it on the inspectors who had butchered the schedule and roll calls they usually had.

Nagato sidled up to the table to the new arrivals. One of them was whooshing noises as she played with two bulbous and cute cylinders. It was good enough to strike conversation with.

"What are those?" she asked as the ship girl was making spluttering noises as she brought her two hands and the cylinders together. An explosive collision probably.

"Over here is my two hundred kiloton ballistic missile and over here is my area deterrent variable payload torpedo," declared the girl brightly.

Nagato felt her thoughts reach Operation Crossroads. Nagato felt her faith in all things cute and wholesome being confronted and disputed.

What cruel days they were condemned to.

…

The blast had reached San Diego.

The lighting split the overcast skies and impacted the American city.

Dark clouds twisted around the impact zone. What Abyssal sorcery was this that allowed these huge and dark swirling clouds to slowly demolish the city? Where these turbulent clouds were thickest, the ground was simply gouged out, steadily increasing the momentous crater that was being formed.

Those motor vehicles that were still stuck in traffic jams were abandoned by their occupants as they attempted to flee on foot. Those who could see the clouds were far too late and were swallowed from sight.

The vessels that attempted to flee by sea were gunned down by the Abyssal blockade.

The US air force had contributed several huge cargo planes to assist the evacuation. Even sardines are more comfortable marinating in their closely-packed sauce and can. The people were packed closer then cattle to be slaughtered.

Any of the planes remaining found their electronics had failed. If they were in the air, they fell to their fiery deaths as soon as the blast and destruction began.

The clouds slowly reached higher and wider from its centre. Its inexorable advance didn't look like it would bother to stop to the occupants left in the city.

It consumed everything in its path.

At Hawaii, they had seen those islands physically wiped from existence.

San Diego would suffer a similar fate. There would not be a skyscraper or street remaining untouched by the time it was over.

Another city to be struck from the revised map of North America.

…

Yuubari only persisted through her determination to distract the enemy.

"Why?" she said as soon as the woman pulled away.

The woman had just smirked.

Yuubari was lead back to the main streets. The soldiers looked at Yuubari hatefully, their eyes vowing to visit atrocities of a magnitude and nature unthinkable to sane people.

They made those eyes every time they saw one of the civilians too.

Yuubari resigned herself to her fate when the woman guided her back to the clinic. She could only hope someone survived to tell her story. That someone could recount how she had volunteered to die in their place.

The operating room had been renovated in recent years. The military had taken over many of the hospitals in the area when Okinawa had been fortified. As they pushed past the doors leading down a sterile-smelling ward, Yuubari could see holding rooms with inches of clear material between her and whatever they contained inside.

The hospital was a prison. The terrified people inside could see the inhabitants of the other rooms across from them but not beside them. The walls facing the hallway in between the holding rooms could be seen through on both sides.

Two soldiers were busily scrubbing away at the trail of blood she'd made as she was dragged down from the opposite end of the hallway Yuubari and the woman were walking down.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Yuubari.

"Because of orders."

Yuubari wanted to ask more but they had arrived at the door the blood trail led to.

The circular operating theatre she entered had a very high ceiling with two higher levels being able to look down on her.

The woman tied Yuubari down to the operating table that was covered in the skin and blood of her friends.

Then the woman switched on the audio recorder that was linked to the speakers above the basement where the other ship girls were. She checked its power level and tossed out its batteries dissatisfied at what she found. She then left, probably went to find fresh batteries.

Yuubari tried to not focus on the smells around her. She tried not to think at all.

She hoped that the time she had bought for others would actually save them. She no longer cared for her survival.

 _Please remember me._

The woman came back. She snapped the batteries into place. Then she slicked back her bloody hair.

…

Night had fallen on Okinawa.

This time the roles of attacker and defender were reversed.

Stealth-coated ships, planes and helicopters descended upon the islands of Okinawa. Boats too small to trigger enemy sensors made their way up the rivers and coasts. Troops rappelled down cliffs and climbed up to vantage points.

Hostile forces determined to drive the defenders from the islands once again.

Redirected satellites and several UAV's had given the last updates for enemy positions and strengths.

When the initial attack staggered the enemy, the rest of the attackers were to storm in. They would have to act fast and decisively enough to even make the formidable fortifications of Okinawa itself grit its teeth.

As soon as the last fleets back in Japan hit the water, it was go time.

…

Rear Admiral Chengli arrived and introduced the four ship girls to Admiral Goto.

"Would you mind telling me how the problem of the prohibitive cost of summoning modern warships was dealt with?" Goto was sat down in facing the girls in the front row of the amphitheatre after most of the ship girls were dismissed to make preparations to leave for Okinawa.

"Well these three underwent the summoning ritual and it completely demolished the resources that were stockpiled for months. Years even," the Rear Admiral motioned to Liaoning, Kirov and Severstal.

Then he pointed at Izumo.

"She took over the body of my wife as both of them died."

That elicited a most exceptional and strange emotion on Goto's face.

"It wasn't on purpose," exclaimed Izumo, "I wasn't aiming to defile your wife's corpse or something."

"Well it was more that you intruded on her while she was dying," Izumo's heart sank, "But I'm sure my wife was glad that at least one of you survived."

That rendered Izumo momentarily speechless. She still thought that the Rear Admiral had held that against her.

"But I was wrong to pretend to be your wife," said Izumo, "I was wrong to even consider taking over her family and life."

The Rear Admiral simply laid a hand on her head.

"It was enough that you helped me raise my daughter, our daughter."

Did you really have to put Izumo on the spot like that? It is very awkward.

Before Izumo could manage to cobble together her next sentence, Goto interrupted them.

"Would your superiors be disagreeable with the idea of you submitting the details of what happened?"

"If you don't get the crazy idea of dragging your wounded to summoning rooms," they both laughed at the ridiculous notion, "I don't see why not."

…

"Yuubari!" screamed Samidare.

Then the torturer stopped.

"Eh. Please stay here while I go deal with something."

The person strode away, leaving only Yuubari's rapid breathing to be heard by the other ship girls.

"I heard that there are people coming to save us," Yuubari heard what the woman had said to the other person on the radio, "I've been thinking about how you guys can escape."

She could speak to them. But they couldn't speak to her.

"The door is unlocked," continued Yuubari, "The basement itself is old, mostly wooden."

Yuubari could get the others to escape. But there was no escape for her.

"Use your metal restraints to start a fire," wheezed Yuubari, "The Abyssals don't want you dead after all."

She told them as much as she could about the hospital, the streets and the ship girls she had seen.

"Please. Tell everyone back home how hard Yuubari tried," Yuubari was mesmerised at the organs still left that were still pumping in her exposed midsection.

"You should recover enough strength by then," Yuubari remembered she had felt much more clear-headed when she'd left the basement, "Please get as many away as possible before everything goes crazy."

There was no reply, of course.

…

Every combat ready ship girl was to sortie.

Some were sent to patrol the rest of Japanese held territory that was now left weakened as the situation sapped the attention of the nation.

Most headed to Okinawa.

Liaoning, Izumo and Kirov kicked off the surface of the waters as they moved in concert with the battle group leaving Kure Naval Base.

Severstal had dived under the water as her top speed was higher when submerged. Severstal hid her deadly armaments in their tubes in the rigging at her sides.

Protruding from Kirov's hull was her missile suites of hundreds. So many missiles. Taxpayers cried. Kirov shouldered a ship girl version of the semi-automatic RG-6 grenade launcher.

The ship girls had too much to think about to provide much conversation. The battle group proceeded to Okinawa bringing the slower or less suitable reinforcements that hadn't been recommended for action until now.

The two Yamato-class battleships and one Shinano-class carrier were embedded in their formation, behind layers of escort and capital ship protective bubble-wrap. If those three ships were lost to a mission that wasn't of the utmost importance to the preservation of humanity's way of life, the confidence and morale would drop to its lowest since the revealing of the ship girls.

They were going to have to win at Okinawa. If they lost, it would convince the world that nothing could win against these Abyssals.

The Abyssals would cement themselves in the minds of humanity as undefeatable. It would make any military forces, despite their training and courage, to be able to stand against the Abyssals with their previous determination. No warship, no missile, no aircraft, no nuke, no ship girl, nothing could defeat that sort of mentality.

Unless they hunted the darkness all the way, the Abyssals would only get stronger.

Maybe humans had become too complacent. The calamity after operation Unity seemingly kept at arm's reach by the introduction of ship girls.

History could attest to the continued accomplishment of humanity being able to recover from anything. But there was a real possibility that human achievements and life would be wiped off the face of the planet.

Abyssals would become the dominant species of Earth.


	18. Chapter 16: We Still Kill the Same Way

Chapter Sixteen: We Still Kill the Old Way

 _"In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."_

-Herodotus-

…

After the introductions with Admiral Goto and the new ship girls to Kure Naval Base, Rear Admiral Chengli had gone about fulfilling his role of liaison and representative for the People's Liberation Army Navy.

Now that the Chinese President had revealed that the Chinese navy had 'recently' gotten its own ship girl program, a senior Chinese officer involved with the program had the answer some questions. So he had been sent to the investigation in Japan and also taken the two ship girls who had been 'seconded' to the Chinese Navy.

Now Kirov and Severstal had been revealed to the public as well, this time the Russian Federation had taken the responsibility for their acquisition.

Many were noting the discrepancies and gaps in the official story. The public had not been told the extent or duration that these two nations had been developing technologies for their own programs.

They did not know the full story.

They did know that at some point, a Chinese navy captain had become Izumo. They still didn't know the nature and details of how or when Lin Jingfei had become Izumo. The UN investigation revealed that Izumo and Liaoning had not been summoned and transferred by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.

They now knew that the Chinese and Russians had summoned back relatively modern ship girls.

At another time this would have raised a veritable storm of questions and accusations to be levelled against the Chinese.

But recent events on different sides of the globe were taking the immediate centre stage.

The United States was in charge of the operation to retake the Okinawa islands, while their homeland was under attack by strange new enemy weapons. The navies of the North American continent were being cut off from reinforcements and were denied from access to areas that had been subjected to massive deadly anomalies.

The full details of the events at Okinawa were being covered up for the time being until the crisis had been resolved. A crisis where approximately a million lives were at stake.

The determination and morale of the citizens of the world was shaken and decreasing.

The early days of the war had been quite tame in their scale and power. Losses were hidden by government correspondents. The general public were interested but couldn't get enough information.

After Operation Unity, the participating nations could not contain the scale of the disaster. Ports and families awaited the return of the ships and crews sent off into the fray.

Those years following Unity, many people truly believed the world as they knew it was coming to an end.

It seemed as if the Abyssals' true fury and strength was only then being revealed. Huge battles with an enemy that seemed numberless and relentless. Militaries slain in droves. Towns and cities lain to waste.

Every ocean and sea seemed choked with enemy vessels. Places on the coast were subjected to random attacks by Abyssal fliers and warships. Global trade ground to a halt.

The panic and riots continued to rise until the war began to stabilise after the introduction of kanmusu. They could hold the line against Abyssals.

The situational stalemate could at least convince humanity that they could at least be equal with the enemy.

…

"This way," Hibiki aimed her stolen assault rifle at the direction of the main road.

After setting fire to the basement, the five ship girls had knocked the guards who came to free them. Hibiki had held one guard in a full nelson hold while Ikazuchi punched the snot out of him. Inazuma just kicked the other in that very treasured place.

Akatsuki had asked the group if they should keep the speaker so that Yuubari might talk to them. But it might've been too loud and they couldn't use them to communicate to Yuubari.

They could either get her or get help.

Nope. Wasn't even a choice to begin with. That would've been a very short game prompt for the player.

…

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli was applying shaving cream to his stubble when he realised what sort of position he'd put Izumo in.

He had just condescended Izumo by just randomly patting her head.

They had been talking about his wife being dead and all of a sudden his hand was on her head.

Weirdly, Admiral Goto and the others were completely fine with it.

Xian went and visited the ship girls before they were due to leave Kure.

The first he visited was Severstal. Severstal had sneaked off base sometime and purchased a collection of chibi figures. She explained that she had just walked out of the base using her latent ability to blend into her surroundings. That this ability worked on land completely puzzled Xian until Severstal pointed out that ship girls still retained a small portion of their power while not in ship armaments and on land.

Xian asked how difficult it was to use ship armaments on land. Severstal said something about the weight of the rigging of the ship girl became vastly reduced and easier to move around with. Severstal also noted that she wasn't able to launch her missiles to their stated maximum range when firing them from land.

Severstal also said that she had gained a liking for toys and figures because often she was left alone when recuperating from her numerous surgeries. Those surgeries had been aimed at keeping Severstal's reactors and nuclear shielding within safe conditions. She couldn't interact with many others because they would have gotten radiation poisoning.

The next person he visited was Liaoning. Liaoning was not in her dormitory room like Severstal, and was actually in the workshops. She was checking all of her armaments and rigging worked fine. She now had a full complement of fighter and helicopters.

Kirov was to be found coming out of the 'dockyards'. As the head of the Chinese "Naval Personnel Adjustment and Deployment" department that had now just gone public, Xian attempted to figure out why the hot-water baths seemed very large and important. Was it just an amenity or facility for all the people on base to relax? Kirov said that she heard the baths could regenerate combat wounds for the Kanmusu stationed here which was why they were referred to as 'dockyards'.

"Cut the Bolshevik, Kirov," Xian swore, "You saying it just closes up injuries?"

Xian had stretched his belief to include the weird shit that were the Abyssals and Kanmusu. He would just have to believe that. He just wondered how it worked. Chinese intelligence hadn't heard of or mentioned this at all.

Then Xian visited Izumo.

Izumo was to be found in her room in the dormitory set aside for carriers. It appeared the Japanese navy divided up living arrangements based on ship type. Xian Chengli was taking notes.

Izumo had been assigned to the carrier dorms because there were no dorms specifically for helicopter destroyers. It was obvious that Izumo was a capital ship, but she didn't seem to fit battleships or heavy cruisers. Severstal had been quite annoyed when she realised that submarines were not perceived as capital ships. The Soviet navy would have also thought somewhat similar.

Xian had apologised for his treatment of Izumo just before they had flown from South Korea. He had apologised for ordering her to work in very trying conditions.

This time Xian talked to Izumo about how she was finding her stay in Japan.

The few interactions Izumo had with the other ship girls had soon made it obvious that many viewed her with something approaching reverence. This had completely confused Izumo, as she had been partly responsible for the predicament they had found themselves in when Japan was brutalised over their involvement, or lack of, in the Yellow Sea Offensive.

It seemed the other ship girls had still been listening to the media, even as it slammed their contribution in the conflict. They heard about how the wife of a high-ranking officer, now revealed to be in charge of China's ship girl program, had been Izumo for some time.

This viewed positively by the ship girls, for some reason. The ship girls of Japan saw that Izumo had raised a daughter with an Admiral for a husband. That made her one of the few Kanmusu to get married.

And Izumo's standing alongside beleaguered troops in front of the camera must have added to Izumo's mystique.

So when Izumo had arrived in Kure, they believed that she was a woman suffering from the loss of her daughter who she had raised. They had been endlessly sympathetic while others had bombarded her with questions of what a married life was like.

How did she find the fact that both she and her husband were in the military when her child had just died?

Did she have plans to have another kid sometime during or after the war?

How could you still fight huge numbers of Abyssals when your daughter just died earlier that day?

How did it feel to be fighting in Dalian when both you and your husband could have died?

Izumo fidgeted and continued, while Xian just looked dumbstruck. Her actions and background had helped give ship girls as a whole a better image in front of the media. Izumo was not prepared for the level of politeness and respect afforded to her for this when she had arrived. She had fully expecting ridicule for participating in her country falling from grace.

Then Izumo had looked very uncomfortable as she quietly suggested that the two of them should act more like a couple.

Xian looked very carefully to try and see if Izumo's face was showing signs of having lost her mind. Again.

Izumo explained that it helped morale when the ship girls could see them acting close in public.

Nope. Xian cut her off, wished her good luck, and fled.

…

There was an obvious downside to an operation being led by the Joint Special Operations Command.

This was an intergovernmental organisation with huge experience equipping, training and coordinating the best of the best soldiers across theatres around the world.

It also had little clue as to how to make ship girls fit into their plans.

Admiral Goto had had to point out that Akitsu Maru may be classified as an amphibious assault ship, but her Daihatsu landing craft that she carried could not storm beaches as the strategists wanted.

Now he had to clear up the massive flaws with the idea of airdropping ship girls into the combat zone.

"You must understand that when a ship girl puts on her rigging," said Goto, "She cannot be transported by aircraft easily."

Lieutenant General Cammens, the highest ranked officer of this organisation, just sighed.

"You said before they could move their armaments while on land."

"A Kanmusu is practically immobilised by the weight of her equipment by then."

"Could we send their rigging in parts?" the Lieutenant General had been bouncing ideas off Goto as soon as he'd arrived in Kure. The Lieutenant General had already been stationed in Japan and moved to Kure where the people planning this operation had gathered. Many of the Japanese brass were yet to come back from Tokyo.

They sat in Admiral Goto's office. They would move to the combat information centre aboard USS Abraham Lincoln when the operation started.

"Miniaturising a ship into a Kanmusu's rigging mean the rigging is pretty damn dense. They need the support of water buoyancy to be used properly."

"And I'm guessing they're that heavily massed because they have to handle the recoil of the weapons?"

"Like all large-calibre gunned ships are designed," agreed Goto, "It would also take very long to assemble all of the rigging if it's in pieces."

"And the enemy would probably notice that we've blotted out the moon with aircraft carrying a ship's weight in IKEA flat-pack furniture," laughed Cammens.

"The Abyssals may be idiotically aggressive but they've shown intelligence as well."

"How do ship girls even get their strength? How do they even work?" asked Cammens, completely befuddled when dealing with crazy technology.

"You would have to ask the development team. But it has something to do with controlling and characterising the spiralling reunification matrices within unbound singularities while running it through a quantitatively inversed quantum keyhole and trading inert matter for..."

"Nope," said Cammens, "I give up."

…

The compound that Yuubari and the other ship girls had been taken to was heavily defended.

One destroyer ship girl cupped both her eyes like binoculars. Unfortunately she couldn't actually zoom or see that well in the dark, but Inazuma tries, okay?

There were as many armed soldiers as there were unarmed civilians.

"How are we going to break into this place?" asked Ikazuchi.

Even if they could get in, they had no information about what the enemy was like on the inside.

"If we could get one of those civilians away and talk with them," suggested Akatsuki.

"Is there any way to communicate with our own side?" asked Samidare, "Then we would have all the intel we need."

"Or we could tell them what it's like on the inside." said Hibiki "It would be all khorosho, if we also got some help."

"Damn," swore Ikazuchi, "how do we get help when the Abyssals have blacked out all the communications."

"Did Yuubari mention she heard the enemy talking on radios?" asked Inazuma, "We need their frequency though, nano desu."

"Then we isolate a patrol and beat them up until we get answers, khorosho?"

…

Akagi and Amagi were having a conversation over why Liaoning was so goddamn tall.

"Why, she's even taller than Yamato!"

"It is the way they build carriers now," declared Akagi, "They like very large carriers that can launch many aircraft and fit a long runway."

"Is she even a supercarrier?" asked Amagi.

"No," said Akagi.

"I… would be nervous to meet an actual supercarrier ship girl then."

…

Izumo had braced herself for questions, but it seemed that none of the other Kanmusu wanted to talk with her directly. But Izumo was designed with the intention of having other warships around her when she went to battle. She felt lonely.

"Yo," Severstal was irritated after holding conversations with the other fleet submarines. It seemed submarines had been very unappreciated back in the days of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It saddened and irritated Severstal to no end to hear that none of the submarine girls had been lauded and praised like capital ships. The lynchpins of strategies. The ships that the conditions of the entire navy relied on.

The Soviet Union that had commissioned Severstal considered submarines of supreme importance, partly due to geographical concerns and their adversary. They could dive under the Artic, escaping the watchful eyes of NATO satellites. They could break through blockades set up in the Baltic and Black Seas. They had delivered nuclear missiles to Cuba. They had been the most well-travelled ship type, circumnavigating the globe, while the other warships sat at home. They had tailed US task forces. They had deterred the enemy, and assured their allies.

'Quantity has a quality of its own.' There had been hundreds of submarines sneaking around.

So when Severstal had expected accommodations fit for a capital ship girl, she had instead been directed to one of the most remote dormitory on base.

And not the most comfortable living spaces available either. Not as comfortable as the room that she'd seen Kirov getting. Double bed, air purifier, kitchen, lounge, 60 inch plasma TV set. What did Severstal receive that Kirov didn't? A night light. That's what she got. Hoorah.

Although Severstal didn't like it, she was still a submarine. But she'd gotten first-class treatment when she was recuperating after surgery. Surgeries, actually.

Izumo watched as Severstal surfaced and handed over a metallic ship model.

It was a 1:600 scale ship. Izumo wondered why the model looked familiar.

Oh shit. It was her sister's model.

Izumo looked over to Severstal but the submarine girl had to submerge. She needed her top speed.

…

"We have contact with someone on the island right now!"

After a family had three had escaped, apparently let go by the enemy, there had been no communication about the situation inside.

The family had revealed that some of the JSDF personnel were working with the enemy.

It was troubling. They had received reports that some Abyssals had just appeared on the island when the Abyssal warships started landing their forces. It was like a switch had been flicked and some of the people, weren't actually people.

If they could disguise Abyssals in the human population. Oh hell.

"This is the Kanmusu, Samidare, of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force," came the surprisingly clear radio transmission, "We need to update you on the situation. And some help on a rescue mission."

Lieutenant General Cammens knew objectives were constantly updated as situations progress. He simply told Samidare to go ahead.

…

The ship girls around Okinawa were both happy that the missing ship girls had been found, and horrified to hear about the appalling conditions they had been subjected to.

"Why the fuck did they have to torture them?" screamed Murakumo. Her rage was understandable. Many of the Kanmusu were being riled up, ready to demand and take their pound of flesh from the enemy.

Kirov had a query though.

"Patch me through to Samidare."

…

"This is Kirov speaking."

Samidare and the other destroyers listened into the radio.

They were hiding out in one of the houses, huddling around to this lifeline.

They hoped time wasn't running out for their friends in the hospital.

"Go ahead Kirov," said Samidare.

"You said the Abyssals tortured the others and didn't do anything to ease their pain?" asked Kirov.

"Of course they didn't. They wanted us to hear."

"You mentioned you heard a welder most of the time as well?" queried Kirov.

"Yes."

"Hold on."

…

Kirov connected to the commanders aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

"I have theories about what the Abyssals are attempting to do."

"Aside from torture and subjecting others to psychological warfare?" asked Cammens.

"That as well. Let me start.

I don't think it's just straight up torture.

The Abyssals are not giving those ship girls any form of anaesthetic. They may be trying to find out all they can about the ship girls while they're reactions are intact. It would give the Abyssals are better idea about how ship girls function.

They will examine every bit of our technologies. They will know our capabilities and internal systems."

"Are you saying our girls were dissected?" said Cammens with no small amount of disgust. Admiral Goto and the others on USS Abraham Lincoln felt the same.

"The fact that they didn't apply anaesthetic means the Abyssals are either unsure of how much dosage would be required or better measure how a ship girl responds to pain and external stimulus outside of combat conditions," continued Kirov. She was the only one who sounded remotely unfazed.

"Please proceed," prompted Goto.

"Both of those would indicate the enemy knows almost nothing about us. But if it isn't too late already, the enemy now has a clearer idea."

"Fucking… what the fuck?" said a bewildered Cammens.

"The other thing I noticed," everyone was hanging onto Kirov's every word, every speculation, "is that Samidare and Destroyer Division Six noted that a welder was always used for the torture.

Why did the Abyssals need Okinawa? Why did they need it intact? Why in a hospital?

Because they needed its military arsenal. Okinawa is a major military site. The northern Nago city is its nerve centre, just like the capital city, Naha. That was because the flow of reinforcements from the Japanese mainland could be received there."

"What is your point?" demanded Goto, he was tired of the rhetoric.

"They needed everything to perform surgeries on the ship girls.

They also needed the resources to completely overhaul them."


	19. Chapter 17: We still hold these Truths

Chapter Seventeen: We still hold these Truths

 _"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."_

-Abraham Lincoln-

…

"Designate the retrieval of captured ship girls high-priority," ordered Cammens, "If they are being operated on so they can be of used by the Abyssals…"

Right now the stealth forces were in position, waiting by their targets as they waited for the mission to start.

Something had been nagging Admiral Goto since his discussion with Lieutenant General Cammens about the unsuitability of deploying ship rigging on land.

Goto recalled a conversation about Kanmusu he had with the developers. He had asked if it was only ships that could be brought back. Could they expect to see something like a M1A2 tank girl?

The answer had been a firm no. There was a certain set of parameters to the summoning ritual that had to be obeyed or it simply wouldn't work.

What had Goto said to Cammens about how the ship girls couldn't really lift their rigging while not supported by water? Water provided that buoyancy that let thousands of tons float and manoeuvre.

No one could move such masses when on the ground or in the air. Several people in history had tried to build too large while working outside of water. Goto remembered reading somewhere about several stupidly large tanks ordered by Hitler towards the end of the war.

Stealth. M1A2. The M1A2 Abrams had originally been designed with stealth technologies.

Who needed stealth on that sort of tank? Seriously. A tank is the armoured broom of modern forces. You cannot exactly hide the heat signature and profile of a tank so that aircraft pilots don't say "There are planes. Then there are targets."

They had plenty of stealth vehicles for this operation. And very small landing craft.

Then Goto realised it.

Maybe there was a way to get those tons to be fully functional on land.

…

Kirov was ordered to inform the other Kanmusu about what she thought the Abyssals were doing.

She'd told them over encrypted channels.

The reaction went as well as she expected.

"Does Samidare and the rest on the island know?" asked a trembling Houshou. It had been many years since Houshou had sortied, but she had kept her bravado up so the other ship girls weren't worried up until now.

"Of course," confirmed Kirov.

Kirov was anxious for the ship girls on the island. They were outnumbered, outgunned, in a situation they were not highly trained for.

Ship girls weren't meant to fight on land. There was no point to deploying them in overland battles because that just negated their biggest advantages of packing a warship's equipment, firepower and armour.

"Is there any way we can help them?" asked Murakumo, "Couldn't special forces take care of the hospital?"

"Getting inside the city is undetected is impossible," answered Yamashiro, "They're on their own for now."

"Tsk."

"We can only help everyone once the mission is underway," said Yamato, "Remain vigilant and we can help as many people as we can."

They could only wait until they could do their part.

"They'll insist on assaulting that hospital no matter what," said Akashi matter-of-factly, "They won't wait to hook up with special forces."

…

"We can't wait for them to catch up."

The rest of the group was nodding as Samidare told this to USS Abraham Lincoln.

"What are you going to do? The enemy will soon be looking for you. You need to lay low until the chaos starts."

"When is the operation scheduled to start?"

"About an hour and a half."

"That's too long," protested Samidare, "Just give us what intel you've got and we're wading into the enemy and taking back our friends before they can be turned against us."

( _Sigh_ ) "When the hospital was renovated, the army had to work around the old parts of the structure. Some of the underground wards had tunnels built leading to them so that equipment and personnel could move around more conveniently."

…

Rear Admiral Chengli was too nervous to sleep.

The idea of attacking at night had been an almost immediate advancement in warfare after humans had learnt what large-scale cooperative fighting meant.

That didn't make it easier to sleep during these night attacks.

He wasn't invited to the party, so he ended up lounging around at a fast food restaurant off-base.

As he steadily worked his way through his set of chicken wings, he received a call on his phone. Unknown contact.

He wiped his hands and picked up.

"Xian Chengli speaking."

"Xian," it was Admiral Goto, "I need to ask you some questions."

"Sure. I'll try and answer as best as I can."

"Do you remember the Chinese navy purchasing any new landing craft from Russia a few years ago?"

Xian frowned. What could they want with landing craft that weren't already at Okinawa? The ones they had already were very impressive.

"We purchased a lot of Russia's stuff back then. Even their old tech was helpful. Why?"

"We were thinking of how to make ship girls relevant on land," continued Goto.

"You going to give them assault rifles and have them charge up the beaches and rivers?"

"No, no, no! What do you know about the summoning ritual?"

Xian's frown deepened. Surely they weren't thinking of summoning Kanmusu now. They had practically every ship girl ever summoned at Okinawa right now. Constructing one would take time to summon and then send. And what could they add that wasn't already there?

"I know it requires a lot of time and resources…"

Admiral Goto huffed.

"What is the smallest ship girl we've ever brought back?"

"Eh? The submarine Maruyu apparently. Why?"

"She's not very large. Only a few hundred tons."

"If you don't get to the point very soon, I'm going to make you eat your 19th Defensive Memorial Cordon."

"The decoration I received for promotions to vice admiral? Anyway. I think we've found a shipgirl who can travel quite well on land. And she's fucking fast."

…

Hibiki's gun was aimed down the metal grill steps when the access door squealed open.

The door had been locked, so the group had staked it out until someone had come along to enter through it, carrying some bauxite ingots.

Akatsuki had wanted to take the person's uniform and try to do it like she'd seen it in the movies. Pretend she was one of them. But Kanmusu tend to stick out anyway.

Hibiki took point and swept the tunnel for any enemies. She hadn't had to kill anyone yet, but she would have to be ready to.

It irked the destroyers that the armed enemy looked like humans. Maybe some were humans. Maybe they were actually all Abyssals. They didn't know, so they'd spared the ones they had encountered.

But they wouldn't have those opportunities to spare the enemy if they were entering the lair they so heavily defended.

Hibiki slowly walked forward. She had a heavy flashlight, but the tunnel was lit.

The ship girls closed the door behind them and continued.

They didn't meet anyone this far down. Samidare was being updated by the architects of the renovations.

"I see a fork in the path. There are three directions to go."

"Head down the left. Then at the next point where the path diverges, take the path that slopes upwards. Ignore the elevator. There should be stairs at the end. That leads straight to the largest operating room."

They proceeded down the path that should lead them to Yuubari and the others.

…

Major General Hara was on the top level of the hospital, the director's office, yelling at her subordinates. How could they let so many of the enemy slip through their patrols and free the captives?

"We are so sorry, General," mumbled the other person on the computer, "But the enemy was cunning and strong."

"Well just make sure you find them before they get them away."

Major General Hara wanted to continue to operate on the ship girl, but other things were taking her attention. She switched off the computer and then another urgent message came in. This time from her radio.

"What?"

"The ship girls escaped."

Hara took the time to ground the radio down into fine powder before heading to the lower levels.

…

Yuubari was having a pleasant dream.

She, Ooyodo and Akashi were standing on one of the piers at Kure. The Admiral had declared they were to have a rest after their victory.

People were already saying it was the most significant battle that Japan had won since the war started. All because of them. The battle could only be won because they had been there.

Akashi wondered why so many people were still unhappy.

"What's going on," she asked to an almost unmoving Ooyodo.

"We were defeated," that wasn't like how Ooyodo sounded at all!

"But we won. We Kanmusu won! All because of us."

Yes. "Yes." Ooyodo began moving towards Yuubari with her hands pulled into claws.

"It was all because of us. The ship girls," said Akashi who didn't have her usual smile. It was a self-conceited smirk.

"I'm glad you are so understanding," Ooyodo pulled Yuubari into a tight embrace.

"What? Get off me!" Yuubari wasn't like this. Why was she pushing away her friends?

Then suddenly she fell off the pier. But she didn't hit the water. Instead she just flew backwards, over the water.

The water wasn't alive. It didn't move at all, didn't spray her with the droplets that constituted a far vaster being.

She just flew backwards until she couldn't see the pier or Kure anymore.

Then she dropped back onto a surgical table.

…

"Your actions and valour remain unquestioned. Your service to your country was true. You left your navy with nothing to regret and your enemies with no doubt. Your deeds are too numerous to name, but your actions at Kamchatsky…"

The summoning rooms at Kure were filled to the brim with drowsy priests and the scraps of resources from somewhere on base.

They had had such short notice to begin the summoning. Most the people here had had to drive here in the middle of the night from various shrines.

They were to summon one more ship girls to the battle.

"Your enemies died with the promise of everything, but the power of nothing. You and your might are needed now more than ever. You, whose voice once permeated the battlegrounds that are contested today. You have turned the tides of battle, called the winds of change, shaken the foundation of the ground, mastered the fires of hell on earth itself.

We call to war once more,

Artemivsk."

…

"Yuubari?"

Someone's hair fell on Yuubari's face as they leaned over her. By the fact that it felt cooling and was blue immediately told Yuubari it was Samidare.

"Hey you guys," said Yuubari weakly, "How did you get in here?"

"There were no guards outside," answered Inazuma, "So we came in to see you."

Yuubari's stomach dropped.

"What about the cameras?"

"Spasibo," said Hibiki, "No problem. I fogged them up."

"Fight fire with fire," said Yuubari drearily.

"Yuubari, we're going to take these off you," said Akatsuki gently. She began to undo the restraints.

They were being very brave for her. They could see how much damage was done to Yuubari. They can see her organs tumbling out of her midsection. They could see the burns she had all over her arms.

Inazuma removed her neckerchief and tried to tie up Yuubari's wounds as best she could. Ikazuchi joined in.

"Thanks."

"Seriously, no problem," choked a teary Ikazuchi. They were used to their friends getting hurt. But Yuubari was far from help.

Yuubari had very little strength. She managed to sit up, but as she eased herself off the table, she could only hang her head, exhausted.

Inazuma and Ikazuchi both seized one of Yuubari's arms and supported her as she struggled to a standing position.

Now came the part when they all ran.

…

Shimakaze and Amatsukaze were waiting for something for them to do.

Shimakaze's design had been based on Amatsukaze, so Amatsukaze was the closest thing resembling family to Shimakaze.

"Let's race," suggested Shimakaze. Many were of the opinion she said that far too often. Something about her being insecure about everything but her speed.

"Sure," agreed Amatsukaze, "We'll show those boats who has the top speed."

They took off, some of the fastest ship girls alive. Titles they were proud of.

Then they heard a propeller-like sound. It sounded like a helicopter passing by or a jet just before take-off.

Both of them twitched to ready positions, lightning fast reactions, adrenaline and endless preparedness drills kicking in.

Their eyes popped out at the ship girl hurtling towards them.

The ship girl had what seemed like turbine engines behind her shoulders. She wore Sfera SSSh-94 face protection and visor, the kind that the Spetsnaz and internal troops wear when they are not aggregable enough to show their face, covering her entire head with what resembled a crash helmet and balaclava. A windbreaker with a hood drawn over her head covered a form-fitting skinsuit. There was barely any skin shown. If she had hair, it must be tucked under her helmet.

Maybe it was because of her appearance being so different from the usual uniforms Kanmusu wore that left little to the imagination. Or maybe it was the fact that the ship girl was running at what looked to be sixty-two knots.

The ship girl looked like a paratrooper ready to drop. Her shoulders were hunched over, knees bent and her arms tugging at the two duffel bags she carried. She sent up huge sprays of water as she sliced through the ocean.

By the time Shimakaze and Amatsukaze had gotten over how alien she looked for a Kanmusu, the girl under consideration had arrived.

"Good evening," she said as she raced past them.

…

Yuubari saw the woman standing on the higher levels looking down into the operating theatre. The woman simply waved.

"You don't have Iku and the rest with you?" she asked the other ship girls.

…

"Who did we bring back?" asked Severstal.

The news of a strange new ship girl arriving was going through the fleet almost as fast as she was.

"I couldn't catch what she said," replied Izumo, "And we're not waiting to find out."

Izumo was right because the night sky had become illuminated by artificially made lights.

Tracers and the contrails of missiles threw themselves into the air. Armor-piercing rounds and bunker-busters rained down on defences.

For a second time the world was determining the fate of Okinawa and its residents.


	20. Chapter 18: Died of a Theory

Chapter Eighteen: Died of a Theory

 _"Tradition usually rests upon something which men did know; history is often the manufacture of the mere liar."_

-Jefferson Davis-

…

"So the enemy finally changed its communications frequencies," said Admiral Goto.

They had a few more details about the enemy. The forces sieging the island were now given the signal to start their assault.

Although the special forces had been partially successful in directing civilians away from key structures, the enemy had now caught on to their strategy. The enemy also had those incredibly hard to kill Abyssals that the special forces couldn't deal with stealthily as well.

There were still key structures on the island that with civilians around them. And the defenses of the island remained formidable. Even if they could destroy the areas that were clear of the civilians, they needed more soldiers on the ground to wrest control of the rest of the civilians and areas from the Abyssals.

When fortifying the island, the Japanese had constructed lines of interconnected bunkers and facilities above and below the ground. These could still be reduced to rubble, but the defenders could still hide within that rubble.

They would have to mop up these defenses with troops. Which meant landing on perfectly flat beaches that had been swept free of any obstructions and cover.

Scattered around the rest of islands were barracks, runways, missile silos, defensive turrets, artillery, harbours and armouries. They had been designed with the expectation coming under attack by artillery and aircraft. Even if they hadn't prioritised defending against overland invasion, they could still turn that invasion into a ferocious fight. They would also continue to provide shelters to the defenders and equipment inside.

So they needed to close with the enemy with paratroopers or marines to fight in the confines of those places. The casualties would be extreme.

And the two most dangerous places to approach would be the military complexes in Naha and Nago that were the nerve centres of the islands' defenses. These were meant to last so they could coordinate the fighting around the islands. They had substantial military equipment and supplies.

Admiral Goto saw Lieutenant General Cammens talking with the woman who had been in charge of the special forces sneaking around the island trying to avoid the enemy. It looked like Cammens now wanted those special forces to now take the enemy head-on, while they called in coordinates to be fired on. They were now to get as many civilians off the islands. Reduce the amount of pieces the enemy could play with.

Goto looked up at the displays on the CIC of USS Abraham Lincoln.

Their enemy was fighting so differently in these recent times.

However they had distinguished themselves this time by not mercilessly slaughtering every human they could get their claws/hands on. The Abyssals they were used to fighting took no prisoners.

A demon had been present at the invasions against China and Korea. That had been an attack unusual in its sheer size. The attacks on Kamchatsky had been unusual as well. Now America and Japan were being attacked by tactics and weapons they struggled to fight. Maybe they would have a demon in charge here. Maybe all their unusual and large battles had demons in them.

Well whoever was in charge of enemy movements in this battle wanted something out of it. The humans would eventually win. It was just a question of how much damage they were willing to suffer for victory.

Kirov had suggested that the Abyssals wanted to learn more about the Kanmusu.

What else could they want to learn? Maybe they were testing tactics here. Maybe there was something they could retrieve in Okinawa that was nowhere else.

They had fought this enemy for so many years and still knew almost nothing about them.

The enemy was innovating and learning and Goto hoped that humanity was too.

…

The strange new ship girl had caught up to the last reinforcements from Kure Naval Base and had overtaken them.

"What the fuck sort of ship can move that fast?" asked a bewildered Ashigara at the already receding silhouette disappearing over the horizon.

Shimakaze looked down at herself.

"Amatsukaze."

"Yes?" said the modified Kagero-class Amatzukaze. The prototype high-pressure boilers that had been installed by the Imperial Japanese Navy made her one of the fastest ship girls ever summoned.

"What is with all these new ship girls we keep getting?" asked Shimakaze.

"They seem to conform to a considerably different philosophy to us," said Amatsukaze mildly.

"Why does the new submarine rival the displacement of a battleship?" asked Shimakaze.

"She said she's a capital ship when she was signing up for her room," said Amatsukaze with faultless logic.

"Why do the two carriers eat more than all of our capital ships?" asked Shimakaze.

"They need to restock some inefficient equipment," answered Amatsukaze.

"Why do some of them look like they're packing missiles?" asked Shimakaze.

"Because they're new and it's new equipment," replied Amatsukaze.

"What the fuck is with the ship girl we just saw?" asked Shimakaze.

"She badly wants to get to Okinawa," assumed Amatsukaze reasonably.

"Are we slow, Amatsukaze?" asked Shimakaze, who was now burying her face in her hands.

…

"Yuubari we've got to move, nano desu," said Inazuma who was supporting the light cruiser struggling to stand.

"No."

"Please Yuubari-san," pleaded Akatsuki as she tried to tugged on Yuubari's sleeve.

"I'm not leaving Iku and the others."

"But we've got you right now and we got to get out," said Ikazuchi who was the other one holding up Yuubari.

"We're not leaving this island until I see the others."

"Yuubari," intoned Hibiki, "We don't know where they are."

"THAT WOMAN UP THERE WILL FUCKING KILL THE OTHERS IF WE LEA-aa-ack!" Yuubari choked on her own blood.

"Yuubari!" yelled Samidare, "We can get help."

"St-ack-op trying to say things to get me to leave."

Samidare held up her radio.

"We stole this radio of someone."

"Does it work?"

"Oh yeah. It…" The enemy had changed the radio frequencies.

"Where is the woman you're talking about?" asked Akatsuki as she looked where Yuubari was.

"She's right there. She just stopped waving at us."

"Please stop Yuubari seeing things," this was getting too much for Inazuma who was praying for help.

"Come on Yuubari!"

"No! FUCK!"

Yuubari swayed as the pain returned. But when she looked up, the woman was gone.

"Move her," ordered Hibiki. Hibiki aimed her rifle at the shuddering doors the whole time as someone, or something was trying to get it open.

"This way," Akatsuki had her stolen gun out as well.

The only other doors in the opearting theatre were to the side of the entrance.

"Make way for the Commando-class!"

The hammering on the entrance doors stopped.

Yuubari was struggling to stay conscious. She tried to keep up with the two destroyers towing her to the doors.

As they neared the doors, the entrance shattered.

Through the entrance was a humanoid figure with Abyssal armour on its head and arms.

Around it were armed soldiers.

Akatsuki opened fire. The bullets made the soldiers duck behind the doorway or the figure.

Hibiki threw an improvised fire bomb made from Japanese sake and spirit bottles they had scavenged from the houses.

It bounced off a shield that flickered to life under the impacts of bullets and bottle.

Then it exploded, showering the enemies with glass and fire.

The enemies cursed as they were set alight and tried to extinguish the flames. Some were ripping at their clothes. Some were patting off their neighbour. Some were just rolling around. None could be bothered chasing down the ship girls while they were on fire.

The armoured figure just lurched forward and staggered towards them.

Hibiki threw another bomb, but this just suppressed the other soldiers and did nothing to the humanoid figure.

Humans had faced Abyssals with shielding before. Some of those Abyssals could take stupidly large amounts of firepower. But only ships could have them. Abyssal fliers didn't have shielding. And it was only the important ships that had shielding.

But the Abyssals must have found a way to put that shipborne technology onto land.

As Hibiki and Akatsuki engaged the enemy, Samidare opened the other set of doors. Inazuma and Ikazuchi were dragging Yuubari towards it.

There was only a stairwell leading upwards behind the door.

Samidare bounded up the stairs as she took the lead, Inazuma and Ikazuchi sweating as they heaved the light cruiser between them up the stairs.

"Go!" Hibiki sprayed the undamaged figure with bullets, the bullet deflected, until her gun clicked empty. Then she and Akatsuki followed the others.

…

"The window has opened," reported the pilot of the Chinook.

The special forces had managed to get the civilians clear from the anti-aircraft gun and missile emplacements and shot those positions to pieces. That allowed the helicopters precious space to land on this forested part of the islands.

"They've got ground troops chasing us," said the Delta Force operative leading the small force that had provided a diversion that had freed those civilians, "We need more time to get the slower ones here."

"Roger that," replied the Chinook pilot, "You guys get that?"

"Received," answered Cammens, "we've got warships ready to provide covering bombardment and more troops airlifting to your location."

The battle was turning against the friendly ground forces though. They could not match the enemy head-on. They were running out of ways to get more civilians clear when their stealth was blown and the enemy stepping up their defense.

"Can we have more troops inserting by river?" asked the operative. 

"We can try."

"We'll attempt to break through to Nago and see what we can do."

"Try and open up more parking lots for us," requested the Chinook pilot.

"Roger that."

…

The first amphibious forces with the covering fire of the warships and aircraft had moved onto the beaches and been slaughtered.

The defenders were too well entrenched and the attackers too unprotected.

Smoke launchers, rockets, bombs, missiles and shells didn't help the fact there was still too little cover for the troops.

Sergeant Asai and a US marine were taking cover behind the demolished wreck of an AAV-7 amphibious transport.

"Are they ever going to run out of bullets to keep us pinned?" shouted the sergeant.

A rocket impacted the wreck and almost made the racked vehicle crush them.

"Fucking D-Day on crack," said the marine, "waiting for mortars or something to boom us to shit."

Then for whatever reason, the fire directed towards the transport, and them by extension, slackened off.

"Oh did something good happen?" wondered the sergeant out loud, "Or they going to finish us off?"

Then they saw a girl riding the surface of the ocean and heading towards them. And everything had been redirected at her.

"Good luck to her," said the marine.

But to their astonishment and probably that of the ones aiming for her, she zoomed to the side and evaded all the rockets fired at her.

"She's fast," whispered an awed sergeant Asai.

…

"Get away from the beaches," ordered Ise, "The enemy is putting up too much fire even for us."

The Kanmusu had just watched their landing forces dash themselves to pieces against the enemy defenses.

Aoba next to her knew no Kanmusu could hope to evade that much fire and survive. She turned around to order the rest of her division to back up a little.

She noticed one of the Kanmusu was ignoring orders and heading straight for the enemy.

"Hey!" she called out to her, "Get away from the beach!"

The Kanmusu turned to her just as she passed by. Aoba noted she couldn't discern a single facial feature.

"But I was born for getting closer to the enemy."

The Kanmusu was going at a considerable speed. She wouldn't be able to slow herself when she reached the end of the water!

"What are you doing?" cried Aoba, "You'll damage yourself if you hit land at that speed."

The Kanmusu turned her head back to Aoba.

"That would not be a problem."

"Are you serious?" yelled Aoba at the Kanmusu now pulling further away from her and drawing closer to the beach, "You're not a landing craft."

The Kanmusu was too far away and couldn't be bothered radioing her. Aoba saw her stick her thumb up though.

…

"Please let us rest," panted Ikazuchi.

They had somehow reached the tunnel they had entered from and there was no one around.

"Yuubari passed out sometime back there," wheezed Inazuma.

Yuubari was indeed unconscious.

"Yuubari?" prompted Samidare as she gently shook the light cruiser.

"We need to at least get away and find somewhere to hide," said Akatsuki.

"Will the others be okay?" asked Inazuma.

"We don't know where they are, though," said Akatsuki.

"Don't know where is who?" said a familiar and unwelcome voice.

"You!" Hibiki would have shot at the woman if she didn't hold Tatsuta in front of her as a shield.

"Don't be so unwelcoming," she groaned, "I just want to return your friend."

She smiled as Akatsuki and Hibiki just kept aiming their weapons at her.

"A fair trade," said the woman, "That girl for this one."

"We're leaving with both," said Akatsuki.

The woman's smile disappeared and she swiftly took out a knife and jammed it into Tatsuta's leg.

Tatsuta didn't react. She was unconscious.

"You!" screamed Akatsuki.

"Yes?" said the woman silkily, "Will you trade?"

"It's not a fair trade," protested Samidare, "You have us at a disadvantage."

The woman sighed.

"I will order everyone to leave you alone."

"But if we hand her over, what's to stop you?"

The woman looked offended.

"I would not hurt your friend."

"No way," said Hibiki, "We don't believe that for one second."

"I'll keep her in good health," said the woman, "And you get one of your buddies back. What's wrong?"

"Everything's wrong with that!" shouted Samidare.

"Sheesh. I'll just have to rescind my honourable offer and kill one of you. That will teach you for escaping."

…

"What is wrong with her?" uttered Shigure.

The strange ship girl zipped across the water, seemingly uncaring for the volume of enemy fire that she was evading with ease.

As the point where water and sand meet came within a few hundred metres of the Kanmusu, the ship girl _accelerated._

Obviously the enemy wasn't expecting this and the majority of their fire was left behind her.

But now the ship girl was going way too fast.

Shigure and her ship sisters watched, dumbstruck as the ship girl mounted land at mind-boggling speeds.

…

The Zubr-class hovercrafts were the largest hovercrafts in military service.

They were originally intended to land hundreds of tons of troops and armour directly onto the coast.

During the war, the Russians decided to upgrade their existing cache of these landing craft. They could afford to experiment with them since they had quite a few of them.

Some of the Zubr-class hovercraft ended up enlarged and replaced their carrying capacity for other capabilities.

Artemivsk had been caught in a difficult situation when the Navy she was part of, the navy that served Ukraine, had undergone an internal war.

She and her sister Donetsk were unsure of what would happen to them. Before the internal war, their sisters were sold to other navies.

She'd changed hands between the government loyalists and rebels until finally being passed to the Russians.

There she learnt from her long-lost Russian sisters that there was a war and a need for many of the old ships to come back.

One time when the engineers were discussing the technicalities of the technological advances they were implementing on her, one of them threw up his hands and said something along the lines of 'Fuck it. Give her weapons and armour instead of cargo space'.

…

The beach was swept clean of obstacles by the defenders.

This had spelt the end of the troops that had landed on the beaches, but for Artemivsk, the flat and negotiable terrain was an advantage.

She charged the enemy lines. She aimed the racks of rockets at her sides and fired at the first enemies she saw.

The soldiers took dug-in positions with hostages nearby. But Artemivsk could get close enough to see the whites of their eyes.

Didn't expect to see a ship on land did you? When she'd confirmed the hits, she gestured at the next soldiers and her AK-630 rotary cannons riddled the next group that were reloading rocket launchers


	21. Chapter 19: Apocalypse Now

Chapter Nineteen: Apocalypse Now

 _"We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it."_

-Dwight D. Eisenhower-

…

A fleet of Kanmusu would need a commanding officer that adapted quickly and could react well to innumerable bizarre situations.

Admiral Goto had been picked for the post due to his self-discipline, poise and patience. He was a well-respected veteran and deep thinker.

However that had been before he'd gotten his position.

Rear Admiral Chengli's only interaction and opinion of him stretched to include the image of a somewhat crusty, sentimental and rambling man, and dealt with the pressures of his job by daydreaming.

Chengli only had to manage a few Kanmusu, and relatively well-behaved ones at that. Even then he could badly screw it up. Admiral Goto must have it worse.

When Goto explained to the incredulous Chinese officer what he was thinking of doing, Chengli had decided not to ask what thought processes brought him to the final conclusion.

What gave Goto the idea that they could safely and rapidly launch and land a ship girl and her rigging by airlifting them separately, so that the ground troops at Okinawa could have a ship girl that could work with them more closely than any other ship girl right there? Oh, and the summoning ritual, construction of the rigging and equipment, requisition for pilots and planes needed to be completed right now, so the ship girl could reach the battles of Okinawa as it turned from stealthy pre-action to an all-out battle.

Introducing friendly forces at this stage of the preparations? With this much notice? With this much time?

The Chinese naval officer asked Goto what this had to do with him. Goto explained that the Kanmusu they were going to bring back would be a hovercraft.

How did Goto get these ideas and urgency? Chengli asked him why he was speaking to him about the arrangements when Chengli wasn't even on duty.

Well Goto explained that he wanted Chengli to fill out the paperwork.

For the purchase of the Zubr-class and permission to summon a ship girl of that class.

They would also need schematics and the engineers that had worked on this class of ship if they wanted to miniaturise the rigging as soon as possible.

Then arrangements for everything and everybody needed for the summoning of a modern ship girl.

And to divert some military transports aircraft to lift the rigging in parts.

Chengli found his face on the fast food restaurant table as he asked why he should be the one doing all this. Like, within the time constraints?

Admiral Goto said that Chengli was the only officer with actual experience filling out inter-navy paperwork since Chengli had organised similar arrangements for Izumo and Liaoning. In fact, he'd done most of the things on the list.

"But it took months to get those processed materials to the summoning room. I had weeks negotiating the Chinese navy's acquisition of Izumo. And weeks to get the engineers and planes to sort out the rigging and transportation."

"What are you waiting for then? You're wasting time you could be using."

The sheer magnitude of what Chengli had been elected to work on when he was technically not on duty. He better get some serious overtime for this.

…

The defenders at Okinawa had expected that the attacks would have to fight them in close-quarters out of fear of committing collateral damage from range.

Now they were facing an unstoppable foe in close-quarters.

Artemivsk rampaged along the coastline. She had encountered one of those strange armoured Abyssals. She hadn't had time to be briefed about them and this was her first time encountering Abyssal shielding.

The Abyssals could make some of their fighters very tough and resistant with equipments they adapted from their warships. However the fighters would be stupendously slow and arming them with warship armaments would have just slowed them down ever further.

Not for Artemisvk. She overloaded the Abyssal figure's shields with her two CIWS turrets, 5,000 rpm of 30 mm each turret. Then she loosed a barrage of rockets.

The Abyssal's shield sparked and flashed and failed to contain the damage.

As the enemy soldiers looked on, Artemisvk dashed out of the way of artillery fire and riddled another group of soldiers with holes.

A column of enemy tanks heading for Artemisvk was largely demolished by fire support from her allies. The ones that did make it through were met with a blizzard of destruction.

Sergeant Asai called to command.

"I recommend we send in everyone now."

"Roger that," said the coordinator aboard USS Avraham Lincoln.

Attack helicopters and landing craft launched from the human ships.

…

Major General Hara had cornered the escaped captives and hadn't expected their audacity.

One of them had thrown what seemed like a smoke grenade and they had taken both Tatstuta and Yuubari in the scuffle.

"General."

"What is it now?"

The soldier had appeared at the woman's side and sounded frantic.

"There is something that is releasing the hostages and eliminating our positions."

"Well can't you deal with it?" said the irritated woman, "Is it only one person?"

"Yes, but it seems our small-arms fire just bounce off and the person is going too fast to be hit by anything larger."

"I fail to see why you need to concern me."

"We think it is one of their ship girls."

The woman froze at that.

"How? What made you think that?"

"She came in from the water," explained the soldier, "She just went straight onto the beaches."

"So the humans had something like this," mused the woman, "I'll need to wrap things up here."

"General," said the soldier, "you're not thinking of taking the person head-on are you?"

"It seems the humans can get their warship armaments and speed onto the land," said the woman, "So I would be at a disadvantage."

"We could get you into your equipment."

"But I would be obliterated by the human forces as soon as I enter the water," explained the woman, "Launch some aircraft and missiles at her."

"They would be shot at as soon as they leave their protected positions."

"Well, hopefully some of them make it through," said the woman, "We need to stop this person before she stops our plans here."

…

The last reinforcements arriving to the battle scattered in all directions.

"Was that Arty just then?" asked Kirov.

"I didn't realise she could come back in this form," said Severstal.

The ship girl was now travelling up one the main roads on the island, causing havoc.

"For this time only," said Kirov, "I will wish that particular Ukrainian girl good luck."

…

"How did the humans get these things?" demanded the Major General as she stared at the reports.

"We have no idea when they had so many highly advanced ship girls," replied the soldier.

The Abyssals were not prepared for the humans to somehow miniaturise jet fighters, helicopters and cruise missiles for ship girls as well.

The situation for the Abyssals had been going so well up until now. However it seemed like they were going to have to abandon their mission.

The southern demon had no intention of dying like the aircraft carrier demon had.

"We need to withdraw for now," declared the demon, "And find a way to combat these new human innovations."

…

"Yuubari has stopped breathing again," exclaimed Akatsuki.

Hibiki began to resuscitate the light cruiser.

They had managed to escape the tunnel and hospital and had avoided the soldiers running about. They then dragged the light cruisers to another dwelling and were now trying to tend to the injured ship girls.

Samidare finished tying a bandage around Tatsuta's knife wound.

Tatsuta was actually in better condition than Yuubari, which worried the ship girls if what Kirov said about the enemy overhauling the victims would be correct.

Overhauling a ship girl meant replacing their internal systems. The Abyssals could conceivably have wrought concealed damage to Tatsuta.

"Uwa!" yelled Inazuma with distress, "When are we going to get medical attention?"

Ikazuchi returned to the group with an armful of household medical supplies.

"How's Yuubari?" asked Ikazuchi.

"She's not breathing," answered Akatsuki. Hibiki was desperately trying to breathe air into Yuubari's lungs for her.

Ikazuchi calmly laid down the supplies than sat cross-legged next to Yuubari. She just took the light cruiser's hand and prayed.

Something out there must be listening, because the light cruiser gasped for air and began breathing again.

Ikazuchi never thought that laborious wheezing could be so reassuring.

"Yuubari!"

The light cruiser just coughed and spat out a wad of blood. She didn't open her eyes. One of which had been removed.

 _(Cough)_ "Where is this?"

"Just keep staying alive, you hear that Yuubari-san?" said Inazuma.

 _(Cough)(Cough)(Spit)_ "Is this another dream?"

"No," replied Hibiki, who was now testing Yuubari's pulse, "You're awake now Yuubari."

"The others?" _(Cough)_

 _"_ Tatsuta's here," said Samidare.

"You're lying. You left all of them behind." An irate expression formed on Yuubari's pale face.

"She's here," Samidare guided Yuubari's hand to Tatsuta's mechanical halo.

"Ah," said the light cruiser, "So what about the others?"

"We're working on it," lied Samidare.

"Good," coughed the cruiser, "I'll go on ahead, okay?"

…

It was just after Yuubari had returned from delivering supplies to islands at night on missions that wre called the 'Tokyo Express'.

After those islands had to be abandoned by the Imperial Japanese, she received another assignment to patrols.

She found herself flooding after being hit by torpedoes. She sunk after numerous attempts to keep her afloat and tow her to port with the help from her accompanying destroyer, Samidare.

…

Yuubari didn't move again after that statement.

Samidare shook the cruiser repeatedly, but Yuubari didn't move.

A teary-faced Akatsuki pulled Samidare off Yuubari. Hibiki asked Ikazuchi to find something to cover up the cruiser's body. Inazuma just kept sitting there, looking completely overwhelmed.

Yuubari lost her fight again.

…

The battle was going favourably now as the attackers surged on to the island and overran the enemy's positions.

"We're all full on this ferry," yelled the ship master as thousands of evacuees waited for a way to get off the beach.

Evacuating a few hundred thousand civilians while in battle would require more transports than the militaries possessed. So there had been a call for volunteers to assist.

More people had volunteered than the most optimistic predictions had expected.

The Japanese were surprised at how vigorously the request had been taken up by the Asian nations. After all, they had been shown to have almost abandoned them just a few weeks ago in the Abyssal attacks last month.

But now ships of nations from India to Russia to New Zealand and more were responding to the call. Hundreds of captains of civilian vessels braved the combat to help the evacuation.

At Dunkirk during the second world war, hundreds of thousands soldiers left on the wrong side of the English Channel had been lifted by hundreds ships and boats while under harassment from the then undefeated German Luftwaffe (air force). That operation had been hastily thrown together and over eight days, hundreds of civilian craft had participated at their own peril.

And now at Okinawa, the same courage and daring was being displayed as they pulled people from the boats and water and ferried them to safety.

…

Izumo scrunched up her face as she concentrated on the missiles and jet bombers entering the air.

She was vectoring her jet fighters to intercept while she also needed to receive and rearm her flight of helicopters.

Akagi and Amagi were awed as they watched the helicopter 'destroyer'.

They had seen Izumo launch and coordinate helicopter and aircraft when she had been in steel form. But seeing her doing it now she was a ship girl was breathtaking.

Her helicopters touched down on the flight deck on her left arm. She then swiped an arrow from her quiver and launched another flight of F-2 jet fighters.

Even while managing the actions of her pilots already in the air, Izumo's concentration didn't waver. She focused on the point she wanted the jets to go and stared it down like it had committed a grave and personal crime against her.

Liaoning was managing dozens of Shenyang J-15's that were struggling to keep up as well as Izumo's F-2's. The pilots had needed to adjust to the new avionics and electronic subsystems installed on the fighters recently at the workshops at Kure.

Shenyang J-15's were cutting-edge for the Chinese, but it was difficult to interface its technologies with the other navies' equipment and methods.

The setbacks stop the pilots slaughtering the slower Abyssal fliers and the larger regular-sized jets the enemy had at their disposal.

Kirov was focussing on keeping up a steady stream of coordinates for all of her missiles. There are missiles. And there are targets. Her fire control computers were calculating trajectories, angles, flight time, atmospheric conditions, and enemies as they guided hundreds of missiles to their destinations.

Severstal had been alerted to the presence of Abyssal warships coming in.

"They have several Wa-class transport ships, sir," she reported.

"Severstal and submarine Kanmusu are to intercept," ordered Cammens.

"Permission to use MIRV nuclear ballistic missiles?" said Severstal hopefully.

"Request denied."

"It was worth a try."

…

The plans had worked well, although there had been flaws.

Those flaws including covert human strike teams releasing hostages and their ship girl captives escaping.

And now those plans were unravelling completely.

Southern Demon wondered if the Abyssals would be better off just bludgeoning the humans to death by just sending out huge Abyssal numbers to attack human strongholds.

But their orders were to wait.

Maybe they needed more time to study the humans. More time to reverse-engineer and improve their technologies and tactics.

Maybe they just needed to wait to build up forces so they could wipe the human infestation clean from this world.

Maybe they needed to wait for the moment when the organised resistance of the humans collapsed.

The demon sighed. She could only report her failure and wait for another chance to prove herself.

…

The group of special forces had reached the ship girls in Nago.

They told them they had orders to get out the captured Kanmusu.

They told them to leave Yuubari behind.

"She's dead," said the Delta Force operative, "We've got to leave right now."

"How about no," said Hibiki, "Khorosho?"

She was the only one still composed after Yuubari stopped moving.

"Look," said the operative, "We know that you've ship girls have had it difficult recently, but buddies get killed in war."

"We're not leaving her here."

"I don't believe this," said the operative and he left the room, "Fucking ship girls I swear."

"Hibiki?" said Akatsuki, "They didn't agree to bring Yuubari-san along?"

"No."

"Heads up!" shouted the operative as he entered the room again, "The enemy has those shielded Abyssal types surrounding us. The envelope is closing."

"We'll defend her then," said Hibiki, standing tall while the other destroyers were sobbing endlessly on the ground.

"You fucking serious," swore the operator, "I'm not dying here for some shitty Japanese island or ship girls."

He left and Hibiki heard him yelling to the other special forces soldiers to flee.

…

It was too late for the soldiers though.

They stumbled away from the house as the vehicles and enemy cornered the house.

They had broken out of the encirclement by taking the route with the least enemies.

The Commando-class swiped at two of the group and their twisted bodies flew several metres.

It then punched one of the operatives, pulverising his skull into a bloody mist.

The three that were left managed to escape.

The Commando-class wordlessly turned to the house and lurched towards it.

They were not after those insignificant pests. They were to retrieve the Kanmusu.

…

Artemisvk struggled up the slopes of Nago.

She suffered a huge drop in speed whenever traversing high angles or heights. She struggled to retain speed as she navigated the obstacles leading to the city.

"Where is the objective?" asked Artemisvk.

"We know some of them are in the hospital and the others have taken shelter. Check these coordinates."

"Roger that USS Abraham Lincoln."

A wall of tanks blocked up the street. She could not traverse their height.

Not with their turrets on.

She destroyed the tanks and tore off one of the tank's turret section. Then she jumped up on the tank and passed through.

She proceeded to the hospital.

…

Was the ship girl unstoppable?

Major General Hara pointed to the armoured personnel carrier arriving at the hospital.

Two stretchers holding Kanmusu were thrown in its troop compartment.

Apparently the ship girl could also knock aside road blocks. What had the humans built?

They needed to cut their losses and withdraw for now.


	22. Chapter 20: Medal of Honour

Chapter Twenty: Medal of Honour

 _"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter."_

-Winston Churchill-

…

Artemisvk was too late.

She arrived at the hospital, the enemies still there seeming to wilt before her firepower.

She had cleared the hospital and the surrounding area so that the helicopters could land here safely.

She had zoomed around the hospital hallways, climbed and panted as she trudged up the stairwells, and checked as much of the hospital as she could, freeing whoever was still left and routing enemy resistance.

There were no Kanmusu to be found.

Then, command was alerted to some of the enemy surrounding a house, and they believed that someone may be still in there.

So they ordered Artemisvk to head there as fast as possible because the occupants of the house were running out of time.

…

Hibiki backed away from the Commando-class Abyssal, but there was no room left for her to back up.

To Commando-class grabbed Hibiki and she yelped as it tightened its monstrous grip.

There was nothing they could do to stop this monster.

Enemy soldiers rushed in, and demanded them to surrender.

There was no choice.

…

With the island being overrun with human soldiers, and the civilians being led to safety, the Abyssals were running out of things to put in between them and the humans.

Bombing runs from UAV drones had knocked down buildings and trapped the convoy escaping from the hospital.

Major General Hara hoped the humans wouldn't fire on them if they still had the Kanmusu.

…

The soldiers and Commando-class around the house saw the unstoppable ship girl coming their way and tried to stop her.

It worked as well as the past encounters went.

She disabled the vehicles and blasted the soldiers to oblivion before charging into the house.

The first soldiers tried to block the hallway, but she just accelerated and they were knocked out by the impact and thrown aside like so many bowling pins.

She entered the room that seemed to be crammed to the brim of enemy soldiers.

One of the soldiers used an unarmed girl as a shield, but Artemisvk just roundhouse kicked him and he was stunned.

Then she launched herself into their midst.

Artemisvk was still getting used to a human form. She hadn't been afloat when ship girls were unveiled to the world. So imagine her surprise when she suddenly heard people calling to her, calling her to be once more. What, how, uh, okay then?

Fortunately for Aretmisvk, she had the speed and reflexes to compensate her mistakes.

The Commando-class dropped the person it was holding, who seemed unconscious, and swiped at the intruder. Artemisvk dashed to the side and ducked under the return swing. She closed in with the Commando-class and overloaded its shields with point-blank bullets from her close in weapon systems.

Once the Commando-class was down, the rest of the enemies went down shortly afterwards.

The people she had rescued seemed very dazed at the speed of the events that just occurred.

Artemisvk spoke reassuringly to them. She knew they were confused and terrified.

"I am here to help. There is a transport that will take you out of the combat area. Please follow me."

One of the girls pointed at a blanket on the ground. There was a person they couldn't leave behind.

"Are they okay? Can they move?" asked Artemivsk.

That had apparently been the wrong things to ask because the people all started crying and couldn't answer any more questions.

"Let me see then," she approached the blanketed figure and threw the cover off.

"Eek!" one of the girls covered her eyes. And the rest of them cried harder.

 _Oh come on, I'm still new to this emotions things._

The person looked very dead and very messed up.

Artemisvk searched for signs of life. She radioed to command to report what she had found at the scene.

"Describe the nature of the girl's wounds." So Artemisvk described what the symptoms of a dead person.

"The person may be having a cardiac arrest," that was the naval surgeon of the USS Abraham Lincoln who had been in contact with her while she went about rescuing the civilians.

The girl who had been unconscious when she'd been released by the commando-class woke up.

Seeing that the girl was not bawling her eyes out, yet at least, Artemisvk pressed her for details for the about how the person got to this condition.

"It sounds like you've found the group of escaped Kanmusu," remarked the surgeon.

"She should be airlifted to a hospital on the mainland as soon as possible."

"Negative," said the surgeon, "We need to have the repair abilities Kanmusu Akashi and maybe Kirov's damage control skills. Bring the person to the shoreline."

"She still has heavy wounds."

"We'll use instant repair suspension."

 _Instant repair._ Artemisvk wondered what that was. She'd never heard of it before.

…

As Major General Hara expected, the humans didn't want to fire at the convoy when she revealed to them she had the Kanmusu inside them.

She showed the sedated form of Iku in the open and let the humans imagine which vehicle Tenryuu could be in.

The Abyssal fleet arriving was trying to break open an escape route through the human forces blockading the entire island. But there were too few ships.

It couldn't be helped. The Abyssal fleet was recovering from the losses they'd sustained and was stretched thin.

But if the demon could get onto the water.

She wished she'd actually been given some of the weapons that the other demon had gotten to play with though. But sadly she'd been told they needed to learn more from these humans.

…

"Is it possible we can retrieve the captured Kanmusu?" asked Lieutenant General Cammens to commanding officer of USS Abraham Lincoln.

"Without damaging them?" said Admiral Williams, "We need to find out what the Abyssals are using to get off the island and disable it."

…

After organising the momentous task of filling out the forms as Admiral Goto had requested, Rear Admiral Chengli just crashed onto the bed in the guest room he'd received.

He just wanted to do nothing but sleep when he received a call on his phone. It better not be Goto.

Xian Chengli looked down at the contact on the phone. No luck.

"Rear Admiral Chengli speaking."

"Chengli, I need to ask of you something else," said the insufferable Goto.

"Go ahead," said Chengli between gritted teeth.

"We're planning on getting Severstal to surface in the middle of an Abyssal fleet and grabbing onto one of their ships."

"I'm sorry, what?"

…

The enemy soldiers had tied the unconscious forms of the captured Kanmusu onto two Wa-class transports while the demon blew open a gap in the human's blockade.

Faced with the same recurring problem of not wanting to hit their own people while fighting the enemy, Goto thought about a way to get close to the enemy while that insanely powerful demon was completely curb-stomping anything that got near.

It was a flawless plan he'd formulated.

"If I die here Kirov," Severstal called to Kirov over a private communication channel, "it was an honour."

Kirov rolled her eyes. She had taken off her ship rigging and boarded the JS Kaga.

Yuubari lay in the ship's medical bay and Kirov and Akashi were the only ones on hand with the highest chance of pulling this off.

"Do svidaniya," said Kirov, "Goodbye, Severstal."

The submarine ship girl sounded aggrieved.

"Why are you saying goodbye?"

Kirov just grinned and put down the radio.

Then she gave the thumbs up to the repair ship girl Akashi.

…

Major General Hara could finally reveal her true intentions to the humans.

 _Been skulking around, and playing among them for far too long._

She laughed at how skittish the humans were acting whenever one of their own was in danger. They simply refused to hit their own comrades or people.

Nothing the humans sent could get near these Kanmusu while she was here and they unwilling to chance hitting the Kanmusu.

"Um…"

The General looked over at a Re-class Battleship who was pointing at the ship girl grabbing onto the two Wa-class transports.

"Why didn't we notice any earlier?" demanded the General.

What was with these new Kanmusu the humans were bringing along?

Severstal took hold of the transport ships, who immediately tried to escape.

 _Here it goes._

She hurled the transports as far as she could.

…

They had completed all their objectives as best they could. But then how could they have lost so much when they had won?

Lieutenant General Cammens took the briefcase he had been handed and headed to somewhere private on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

He went to his room and flicked up the briefcase clasps. He ignored the switches on the briefcase lid.

Inside the briefcase was a clunky computer.

He accessed the one link on its desktop. It would take him to a United Nations Security Council private server.

Before he began his report he looked at some of the other files on the server.

…

Yuubari opened her eyes.

Yuubari felt surprisingly good, though everything was sore.

She could feel the vibrations of a ship underway. She looked couldn't really sit up since half a dozen destroyers were on her.

Yuubari turned her head and noted that there were other beds occupied.

She was about to wake up the destroyers when she saw those eyes.

They were those hateful and disdainful pair of eyes. It unmistakeably belonged to an Abyssal.

Yuubari exploded out of the bed, ran up to the Abyssal and punched it straight in the face.

…

Izumo boarded the Izumo-class helicopter destroyer.

She walked around the vessel.

She wasn't sure if her sister could comprehend her right now, but Izumo talked anyway.

"Onee-sama is so proud of Kaga."

She said things like that while touring the vessel.

She then decided to check up on the other Kanmusu on board.

Kirov and Akashi were completely dead to the world after pulling off repairs to the ship girls that had been damaged. So Izumo just checked in with one of the naval corpsman who was supervising the medical bay.

She had just been inspecting the wounds Severstal had sustained. She had immediately submerged and made an escape, and had been hit with several depth charges.

Artemisvk had been hit countless times by the enemy and her skin had been cut to ribbons. She was completely mummified with bandages.

She had gotten up to leave when she idly glanced up as one of the injured Kanmusu woke up.

She was confused when the Kanmusu pushed off her visitors in a flurry and ran up to Izumo.

Then the Kanmusu punched her in the face.

…

"I am so sorry."

"Don't mention it."

Izumo sighed as she tried to make herself comfortable in her own medical bay bed. She adjusted the icepack over her left eye.

…

Despite their best efforts, approximately a third of the civilians at Okinawa had been casualties.

And the casualties suffered by those soldiers on the ground, especially their elite, had been significant as well.

The only significant casualties amongst their ships had been inflicted when the Abyssals had tried to escape. They had quickly managed picked up most of the crews of the downed ships though. They did have a lot of military forces out here.

Lieutenant General Cammens had learned that the strange blasts that had hit Hawaii had eventually stopped expanding and had slowly shrunk. It had now completely subsided.

Hopefully the western coast of the North American continent would recover as well. And the people would want to return to inhabit those areas.

The Abyssals had also retreated from the North American continent. But it wasn't because they had been defeated. It was probably more the fact that they could not inflict any more damage to the coast.

Lieutenant General Cammens was typing up two initial reports for the United Nations of what had occurred.

…

 **Summary:**

Actions committed by the Abyssals testify to an opponent that is not bothered by ethical treatment of prisoners. The fact they even took prisoners was completely unsuspected since every previous engagement indicates they don't.

But the Abyssals' actions on the whole are completely different from every other engagement. Instead of taking human forces on directly, they used our own people against us.

In more ways than one, actually. Autopsies of some of the 'soldiers' fighting at Okinawa shows the Abyssals have had the ability to infiltrate our own ranks. And for what seems like quite a while as well. Most of these soldiers and officers were highly-respected and had served for a long time.

Major General Hara. Now that just shows that even the best on our side might not actually be on our side at all.

It is a shame she escaped. What she did to some of those prisoners and on her orders many would like to repay.

We were also completely unprepared for the Abyssals who could pack some of their armaments traditionally thought restricted to their warships. Although it seems these were greatly weaker and the Abyssals using them were cumbersome, this doesn't change the fact that they managed to deploy them.

Damages to Okinawa are extreme. Practically everything man-made on the islands is completely non-functional. It will be weeks before we can restore the power grid, water and other basic necessities to a large part of the island.

That is only if the majority of the residents want to return. As shown by other people who have had their livelihoods and homes destroyed, there may be nothing for them to return to. For them, recent events have shown that their military cannot protect them there.

I strongly urge the United Nations to keep the full story secret. I hate to imagine what would happen if we showed them what the Abyssals can do.

The public is already rocked by recent events. The war is progressing badly for our side. We cannot begin to estimate the shape the Abyssal are in. But we know that the Abyssals are changing the way they are fighting and we are paying full price. Casualties and deaths, the highest we have suffered since this war against these monsters started. The Korean Peninsula and the morale of its people lie in ruins. The people of the North American continent have been shaken in their beliefs that they were safe. The Japanese no longer believe in their government or military and riots and mass panic are starting to show.

We have to pull together in these dark times. So what would happen when we tell them we cannot trust each other to actually be human? We are already starting to accuse each other of not being on the same side.

…

 **Fleet Girls program final conclusion:**

The investigations into Japan have been suspended as their politicians and personnel scramble to address the crisis.

Initial analysis already shows that there are profound effects on the psyche of the ship girls.

Admiral Goto and others have already submitted their own reports so I will only say my part here.

The other nations have been handing out decorations to the Kanmusu so I will recommend some of for the United States of America to award their distinguished members.

The light cruiser Yuubari is to be recognised for continuing her duties while grievously injured.

Several destroyers of the unit that operated behind enemy lines are to be recognised.

The submarine Severstal is to be recognised for carrying out crucial and valorous actions in combat.

The landing ship Artemisvk is to be recognised for exceptional military contributions and selfless actions that saved the lives of countless others. She is already in line to receive some of the Russian Federation's highest honours, including the Order of Naval Merit and the Order of Courage.

The actions of the ship girls were invaluable to the eventual success of the operation to retake Okinawa. I would recommend to the United Nations that their actions be honoured and the investigations into their ranks be concluded. They bear no fault for following orders last month and it would be the highest shame if they were not afforded respect deserving of their achievements.

…

After finishing his reports, Lieutenant General Cammens closed the computer and briefcase.

He then flicked some of the switches of the briefcase. He wanted to destroy the contents of the briefcase now.

The United Nations Security Council could not be too careful. They could not let the public ever know just how badly the war was going.

 **A/N:**

I usually don't grab the mic in this story but I'll make this an exception.

It has been one and a half weeks since this story was uploaded to the internet.

As of the 5th January, 2016, the story remains incomplete at twenty chapters (and around 50,000 words).

The author would gladly keep writing but now that the initial premise and flow of idea have been written down, the pace of updates must be slowed as the direction of the story is reassessed.

I would like to get opinions from the people who have read up to this far. What do they want to see? Do they want the author to develop more of these relationships between characters? Any requests for ShipxShip or ShipxHuman? Do they want more action and fight scenes? More characters?

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply.


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